Beyond Forgotten Walls
by entercreativename
Summary: It is good to have an end to journey toward but it is the journey that matters, in the end. Ursula K. LeGuin. The Doctor and the TARDIS find a way to get back Rose. Start of Through the Garden series. TenRose, spoilers up through Doomsday.
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

"Ms. Hatten, please come to the office, Ms. Hatten to the office."

The PA rang so innocently that day, its usual beep and the secretary's kind voice seemed to shock the young woman out of the daze of the required teacher's work day at the end of the semester. Even though there was a phone on her desk in her classroom, where she had been holed up reclusive for the last several hours, the school's secretary still insisted on using the other method of calling a person's attention to other places in the building.

Juliet Hatten looked up from the stack of papers in front of her when she heard her name blare over the old public announcement system in her old school in the old city she had now called her home for only a short two years. The building was in a literal state of disrepair; the school was in continual budget cuts, and the cracking of the PA was beginning to irritate her even more than on most days. She longed for the semester she spent in England back in college, eating too many chips and drinking too much Guinness. She closed her eyes for a moment and almost felt as if she were back there again. It was the only place she felt she belonged.

There was an electricity was in the air that day, one of promise and hope, and yet, Julie thought she sensed something peculiar and wrong in the secretary's voice. She put down her red pen, the one from her parents she received upon graduating college, and hoped that the secretary's page was not to discuss the upcoming field trip to England; the music students had been looking forward to it for the last several years now, and everyone knew the money was scarce to come by.

Hearing the page go off again, and now assuming it was about the field trip, Juliet dug the files concerning it out of the filing cabinet and headed to the office, mocking the secretary's voice repeating its insistence of the upcoming meeting. She passed the band teacher, John Smith, in the hallway, who joined in her mimicry of the old secretary who refused to use the phone system; it had been in the building only for fifteen years, surely she knew how to use it.

As Juliet entered the office, she saw a man standing in front of the secretary's desk with the principal and guidance counselor. As she approached, she knew the man - a deputy in the sheriff's office. She had gone on a date with him a year ago but never returned the attention he gave. Her coworkers both looked sullen as the deputy nodded to her and began to tell her why he was here.

The only thing Juliet heard was the sound of her papers hitting the floor.

"It'll be okay…"

"You'll get by…"

"It gets easier with time…"

Everyone around her kept saying words and doing things that just did not register in her brain. Every sound buzzed and stung her as she was trying to take in the news she thought she had just heard, she couldn't have just heard. She knelt down to pick up the papers that had just fallen to the floor; the guidance counselor had already started the task for her.

"It's always hard, but you learn to cope…"

She heard the words whispered from the woman kneeling next to her and handing her papers, yet, she didn't really know what was going on. She looked back down to collect more of the files and now saw John talking to the deputy; a page having recently gone over the PA for him as well.

"You were his favorite teacher Juliet, and it would mean so much for you to speak at the funeral. Maybe you could sing, he loved to hear you sing…"

Funeral? Juliet clenched her eyes closed and felt for the other papers that had gathered around her; she refused to shed a tear in front of her coworkers and she refused even more so in front of that deputy. She had never been able to handle death well. That's why she went into teaching instead of spending the next five years of her life singing at weddings and funerals and running from audition to audition. Spending all your time with youth kept you young, and kept you mind off what would inevitably come at the end your life, or anyone else's life for that matter. What was going on? Did these people just tell her that one of her students died? She felt herself gasping for air and before she could react to her sudden need for oxygen, she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders pulling her up off the cold floor.

"Come on Juliet, let's go to my office," John said as he pulled her up, motioning for the other staff to bring the files back to her later. "I've got just the thing to help you."

"What just happened in there?" Juliet asked as she felt her coworker helping her back to their part of the building, the only part of this nation that felt somewhat like home to her.

"I'd like to say it will be easier once the shock wears off, but it won't. I don't mean to be blunt Juliet, but it's just the truth. We all have students that die, it's rough, but you get past it." John opened the door to his office and sat her in a chair in the corner he used for late-night score study and went for the electric kettle. "Here, drink this," he said as he passed her a cup of tea.

"This couldn't have come at a worse time. Christmas. What a holiday this will be for his family."

"I see what your students mean now."

Juliet stopped as she heard those words, some of the tea sloshing onto her sweater. "What do you mean?"

John had pulled his desk chair up across from Juliet now, a cup of tea in his hands as well. "It's nothing. We just need to get through this. At least our holiday concerts are over."

Juliet sighed, sipping her tea. "But the trips in two months and then it's festival season after that."

"One thing at a time, one thing at a time."

The two teachers sat in the band office for the remainder of the afternoon, sipping their tea and going over funeral plans.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

The Doctor stared into his monitor on the TARDIS and saw the snow falling gently on the little street just outside London, the little street that almost brought him someone to forget the little love of his life that he had just said his final goodbye to only ten hours before. It was Christmas now, or just after, and images of the Tyler flat still pulsated through his old brain; images of lifetimes now past and companions now grown and aged came flooding through as well as the picture on the monitor disappeared into the black void of time and space. He could go anywhere, anytime and all he wanted to do was to sit on the ramp up into the console room with the doors open and stare into the bleak nothingness of space, feeling its eternal isolation. He wanted to do that earlier, but could not as a bride appeared before him, many millions of miles away from home. He had to take care of that little intrusion before he could brood in his loneliness.

"Where should we go today old girl?" the Doctor asked as he stroked the old console with a gentle hand. How many times had he caught Rose watching him with that simple gesture before? How many times had he caught himself yelling at her for laughing at him because of that gesture? He almost forgot, he wanted to forget, but he knew that something was different about Rose. She wasn't just another companion, there was more about her. Apart from saving his life, and the whole of humanity back on the Game Station, he knew that she had awakened a part of him he had declared dead long ago, a part that insisted on feeling love and beauty and life.

"Ah, I see. You miss her too," the Doctor responded to a slight hiccup in the TARDIS's movement through the vortex. He wanted to give in, allow the girl to just rest and get over the loss of Rose as well, but at the same time knew that if he did, he would give into his desire to fall into the darkness that had taken over his life since that day at Torchwood Tower. Even though he refused to give into that darkness, he knew that he needed to stop and take in her loss at some point for him to survive. "There's never any rest for us travelers, is there?" he said to the ship around him. "I know we're old, but we have to keep going. It's what we do. We cannot stop."

He wanted to feel the pain of her loss, but at the same wanted to feel physical pain envelope him. He wanted to fight, kick, scream, do whatever he could do to almost self-destruct. All the pain and confusion from this and his last regeneration were finally building up in him until he felt it - the TARDIS hiccupped again.

Rose had been left across the void several months ago, and until recently, he thought he would never see her again. Then one day the TARDIS hiccupped and he saw that she was telling him that there was a way to reach out to Rose, to say a proper goodbye. That was a few weeks ago for him. He followed the TARDIS's hiccup and found the last little tear between dimensions and reached out for Rose. He listened to the ship as she hiccupped again, remembering his fortune from the last time.

"What are you saying girl?" he asked aloud, knowing that there would be no audible response. His ship was trying to tell him there could be a way back to Rose though.

The Doctor looked into the monitor and pushed some buttons.

"I'm coming for you Rose Tyler, I'm coming to get you back," he said as he pushed a button that thrust him and the TARDIS across time and space. He was going to get his love back.


	3. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Juliet woke with a startle and didn't quite realize where she was. The last thing she remembered was a skinny, slinky man in a brown pinstripe suit with Converse sneakers telling her to cancel the morning's trip to the museum. She wasn't quite sure when and where it happened, if it even did happen, or if it were a dream. She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes and heard the hum of the engine in front of them and the road signs passing as they drove down the highway in the cheapest coach bus their music department could afford. Why John insisted on taking a coach to New York for the first performance, and then a flight to England for the second was beyond her. Even though she loved travel she hated the transportation part of it.

She leaned back against the pillow and looked at her watch - five thirty in the morning. She looked around the bus and saw the students and chaperones still asleep. The only person awake, aside from her and the driver, was a freshman boy sitting up near the front who looked as if he had a sudden waking as well.

Juliet closed her eyes, trying to find the man in the pinstripe suit in her brain again when she felt someone standing over her. She opened her eyes and saw the boy standing in front of her.

"What is it Ben?" Juliet asked.

"We can't go into this museum today!" Ben yelled in his whispered voice, trying to get attention but trying to not wake his fellow classmates.

"And why not?"

"We'll be in danger!"

Juliet closed her eyes and sighed. "Why are we in danger Ben?"

"The Doctor told me so."

Juliet rubbed her sleep-craved face. "Ben, the guys who put that movie in are in trouble already and will be taking a flight home for their actions. It was just a dream…"

"No it wasn't! We're in danger!"

"Ben," Juliet threw her blanket off and stood up the best she could, "go back up front and go back to sleep. We still have a few hours before we get to the restaurant for breakfast."

"But we can't! We have to go back!" Ben actually yelled this time, a few of the students sat up.

Juliet leaned into his ear and whispered, "Go back to sleep," for the final time before sitting back in her chair and hiding under the blanket.

Just as Juliet closed her eyes, she fell back into sleep, the image of the man in the pinstripe suit appearing before her again. This time though, she was alone on the bus, the students had disappeared and it was just her, the man in the pinstripe suit, and the driver up far ahead.

"You're dreaming," the man said as Juliet sat up, startled.

"Usually when I'm dreaming…"

"…you're at work." He finished her statement.

"How do you know that?"

"I've been watching you for awhile now, from your dreams. There's been something coming, and it was easiest to come to you, you can sense it too." He took another step towards her and sat on the vacant seat next to her. She couldn't move, but she realized that she didn't want to either.

"My name's the Doctor by the way. You'd probably like to know that, I know I would if a strange man in a pinstripe suit came to me in my dreams. Not that it happens that often. The last one I had…"

Juliet sighed as loud as she could to get the man's attention and gave a look of disapproval at the man's sudden ramble. She had never used that look before she picked it up from teaching with John. "What is this about, Doctor? Why am I dreaming that I am on the bus without my students and with only you?"

"Well, there's the driver..."

"You know what I mean!" Juliet yelled, her hands thrown up in the air. "If I'm having a lucid dream, which I probably am, I should be able to stop this bus by snapping my fingers." Juliet snapped her fingers at that moment just as the Doctor held out a flashlight-type device with a blue light on the end, aiming it up front at the engine.

"There, you stopped the bus! Lucid dream. It's mine, but not your's." The Doctor stood up staring down at her, half asking himself a question only he knew the answer to and half scorning Juliet's action of questioning him. "I wanted to give you a message, I thought that you were the one adult in this group who would listen to me, who would know what I had to say."

Juliet opened her mouth to reply, but was instead cut-off by the Doctor, who had now knelt down in front of her, his eyes meeting hers a few inches in front of them. His hands had somehow found their way to her shoulders. She was scared of the sudden confrontation, but he had a presence about him that calmed her.

"I need you to listen to me. Will you do that?" the Doctor whispered to her, his voice low and gentle, yet powerful enough to convey how serious he needed to be at the moment.

"Yes," Juliet said in a hushed squeak of her broken whisper.

"Good. You are dreaming, but this is very much real. I'm coming to you in your dream to tell you to not go into that museum later this morning."

"But we're…"

"No," he squeezed Juliet's shoulders to make the point. "You can ask questions later. Right now, you need to listen to me, no interruptions. The museum you are planning on taking the students to is dangerous. Do not, I repeat, do not take them there. If you do, there will be disastrous consequences." The Doctor removed his hands from Juliet's shoulders and sat down next to her again, an even more solemn look on his face. "If you go there, everyone will die."

"What?" Juliet whispered.

"When you wake up, you will call that other teacher on your mobile and tell him to cancel this part of the trip."

Juliet opened her mouth to argue, but was again cut-off by the Doctor.

"And you will instead take the students to the mall down the road from there. It is what they want after all. I asked them overnight." The Doctor's tone had changed from serious to playful again as he flashed Juliet a broad, toothy grin. However, it lasted only a moment as he flashed her the most serious of looks again. "Just don't go to the museum."

"I'll try. But…"

"No. You will cancel. Understand?"

"Why?"

"I need you to do this, no questions."

"You just said a moment ago that I could ask questions."

The Doctor looked up and shifted his head back and forth in thought. "Eh, I did say that, didn't I," he suddenly scratched the back of his head, replaying the conversation in his head. "Well, now's not the time for questions. Later is, but, wait," he started jumping around, "…no, yes! Later is the time for questions."

"Doctor, whoever you are, now is later than it was before."

"Oh relax, you're just having a dream! We can debate time the next time I see you. Oh, that was a funny sentence. Just don't go to the museum." With that, the Doctor snapped his fingers and Juliet was awake again, on the bus with her students all asleep around her.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Rose felt it, she didn't know what it was, but she felt it. She looked up from her desk at the travel shop and knew that she had to be somewhere else, and soon.

"What is it dear?" Jackie asked from her desk. The day had been a slow one in their small, London travel shop. Jackie sat working on her manicure; every so often commenting on the baby kicking and Rose sat thumbing through their brochures and trade magazines. There was plenty of other work to do, especially since the baby was due pretty soon, which meant that Rose would have to take over for her mother's clients as well. Not that it would be a problem as business was still pretty slow. And there was plenty of other work to do on the building itself. They were still in the process of building and expanding and renovating, and the list could keep going for miles. It was all the things But Rose still had this feeling that she had to be somewhere else, and soon.

"Rose, darling. What is it?" Jackie asked again, with the concern that only a mother could possess. This time, however, she put down her nail file and came over to Rose's desk.

"It's nothing Mum, just nothing."

"You've been saying that ever since we got back."

"Mum, we've never really 'got back' anywhere. Have we? We're both in a new place."

"But it's London. We're both born here."

"Mum. It's, oh bollocks. Nevermind." Rose picked up her magazine again and saw an advertisement for an old museum in New York State in the United States. " That's strange…" she heard herself murmur under her voice, just barely loud enough for herself to hear, let alone Jackie.

"What's strange? What is it Rose?" Jackie asked.

"It's noth- well, it's this ad." Rose held up the magazine for Jackie to see as she brought it closer to her mother's desk.

"So, it's just an old museum in the US. What's the matter with that?"

"Well, we've got a tour going there next week, they leave tonight, and it feels like I'm supposed to be with them."

Jackie threw down her nail file again. "Rose, you know you can't go! What with the baby coming soon; I need you here, to run the shop."

"Mum. We've barely got any clients. There's only four people going on that tour, and half of them are from another shop."

"Well, it was your idea to open it, your idea to 'travel round the globe!' I'm just sayin' Rose, just because Pete has money, doesn't mean we get to burn it on every little whim. He's worked hard for it, and he has a right to earn something at the end of the day other than our bills. This travel shop has been a bad idea from the beginning." Jackie sat back down at her desk, staring at Rose across the piles of papers and brochures that no one ever came in to see or even ask about. Business had been bad ever since they opened. It was true that Rose wanted the shop; being stuck in one place so suddenly had become a nightmare for her. She was still used to roaming the universe with the Doctor, seeing new sights and places each waking moment. Now, all she really saw was the inside of her London flat, her parents' house, and the shop. Once again, she had become a true shop girl.

Rose tried to go back to reading her magazine but was now too distracted by Jackie's argument. "Mum, it's not like that," she said, placing her magazine neatly on her desk. "Have you ever had a sudden change in your life?"

"Of course I have Rose. Pete's alive and I'm wealthy. Oh, and there was that year that you disappeared. Is this about the Doctor again?"

"I s'ppose so." Rose whispered. Hearing his name said by Jackie hurt her again. It had hurt worse since Bad Wolf Bay. She stood up from her desk, trying to figure out where to go next but realized there was no place to go. She gave up and sat back down. "Mum, I just know that I have to be there, at that museum, kinda like I knew I had to follow the Doctor's voice. It's instinct, and it's one I can't fight. I've become so used to traveling that it's hard to stay in one place for more than a few days."

Jackie sighed, the mother's instinct broke deep within her. "In the end, you still became like him. I still lost you to the stars."

"It's not like that Mum. Really."

"You spent all that time with him, and with no one else."

"There were plenty of people around."

"But none like you. Rose, remember how I once told you that if you spent too much time in that ship you'd turn into some woman that I wouldn't recognize?"

"But Mum, that hasn't happened!"

"Yes it has Rose. You look like him, you act like him, and I don't know how often I catch you whispering his name throughout the day. You haven't gone on a date since we've come here, let alone try to meet new people. You've withdrawn from everything."

"I thought I opened a shop. That's not withdrawing, that's doing something."

"Rose Tyler!" Jackie yelled, Rose now knew that she had pushed the argument too far. "You are my daughter first, so listen to me. You've got to change! What you are going on about is not healthy! You need to move on. He probably has."

"Don't say that!" Rose yelled. She didn't want to think about the knowledge she discovered the day she met Sarah Jane Smith in that high school what now seemed like ages ago. She had discovered the truth that day, she really was not his first companion, and she figured that she wouldn't be his last. She was just one in a long line of many women and a few men, and it hurt her to realize that. It seemed to hurt him too, and he tried to console her after the event, but it didn't happen. But, this feeling of needing to be somewhere was one she knew more than she could ever admit to. She had felt it all the while she was on the TARDIS - it was the ship telling her deep within her soul what was going on. And it was happening again.

"What I am going on about is something that I feel so deeply that I know I need to do," Rose said.

"You're not hearing his voice again, are you?"

"No, it's just-"

"It's just you feel like you have to be there, in that museum. Can't you go another time, like after the baby's come?"

"No, I have to go on a specific day. Wednesday, next week. I have to be there then. I just know that."

"Oh fine!" Jackie yelled. The argument had been hard on both Tyler women, and Jackie wanted to end it as quickly as Rose did. "Go on your trip. Call Mickey first, see if he can come and fill in again. Or maybe Jake. One of them should be willing to help."


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

In a old museum in an old town in upstate New York, the Doctor poked his hand out of the door of a blue police box in a small cupboard, a blue flashlight, something he called a "sonic screwdriver" being spun around in slow circles. He pulled his arm back in and looked at the device. "That's not good, not good at all," he said out loud to no one in particular, but the hum of the TARDIS changed a little for the briefest of moments, imperceptible to everyone who knew what it really was, except the Doctor.

"I know girl, the answer is here, but-"

The lighting in the console room dimmed for a moment, the hum increasing in pitch and intensity.

"I know the rift comes through here, what I'm worried about is that the owner seems to know it as well," the Doctor said as he came back over to the monitor on the console, bringing up the cameras of the museum's security system. Ever since the day he dropped Donna off at her parent's home, the TARDIS had been pulling him to this time and place. Well, it had only really been a few days for him, but for everyone else, especially Donna and Rose, and Jackie, and Mickey, Pete, Jake, Sarah Jane, K9, everyone really, months had passed. People had given birth, while others had passed on to the void. People got married, met new friends, lost old ones. People went to work and school, and life went on, while he had popped into his time machine and taken the fast road ahead to this day and place.

There were times in his old age he just wanted to take the slow road, live life day by day. But wasn't that what he was doing? For him, exactly twelve days had passed since losing Rose in Torchwood Tower, but for her, it had been months. By the time he got to see her, the final time that she knew about, Jackie was three months pregnant. And now, even more time had passed for them, but how much exactly he was unsure of. He didn't even know if this would work, as he had no way of reaching through the rift to tell her this time. He knew it was here, but he couldn't get it to work as he could before the initial one had closed up. This was just a tiny rift like the one in Cardiff that he had used to power up the TARDIS that one time. Nothing more. But yet, every tear in space and time meant yet another way to get his Rose back. To him, it meant hope.

He tried to clear the museum for the day. He knew it was a popular tourist attraction, and hundreds of people walked through it each day. That meant that today, hundreds of people would be in danger. That meant that tomorrow, another set of people would be in the same danger, and it just continued, day by day, week by week. He knew that people had disappeared while in the museum, the local authorities seemed to know something was going on, but they just wrote it off as some tourist getting lost and never bothered to investigate it further. Some people called the place "haunted," but it was more than that. The owner of the museum seemed to be able to command a rift in time and space that flowed through the old building. There were stories told by the locals how you could go in one day and a room would look centuries old, but the next day, next minute even, it would look brand new. That was the rift's doing; people were walking in and out of time while in the building and they didn't even know it. They just wrote it off as being part of the museum's charm. What other charm did this place hold? If they were going from time to time, could they be going from dimension to dimension as well? He was sure of it.

He had spent the last week with his TARDIS holed up in this cupboard, or closet as the American's would refer to it, and there were times where he'd arrive at it and he'd have gone back decades into the past just because of the rift. He had gotten past it after the first day or two; the TARDIS seemed to find a small device to carry that kept him from sliding through the rift's time shifts so he could come and go on his own to investigate. He was thankful for that device, as he now could always find his way in and out without exiting the building to 1846 or 2156. The worst was when he opened the door and it was at least 1265 BC; a lovely tribe of people however had pushed him back into the forest from which he came, which of course became the museum once again.

With that dilemma solved, he went about asking locals information on the museum. That's where he had heard all the stories of hauntings and missing persons from. But he had dealt with hauntings - each time it was just another race of aliens trying to get across from one place, one time even, to another. However, this was different. Along his usual investigations one day he discovered that people had mysteriously appeared in the house as well, claiming to be from different times, but all having been from that specific spot in the museum. There was one woman who even claimed that zeppelins flew over London, which did not have a royal family, but a president named Harriet Jones.

Now, between scanning the rift in the TARDIS and following up on several of these stories, he was convinced that he could use this anomaly to his advantage. For today, the Doctor wasn't going to save the world or stop someone from trying. If it happened that way, then it was just sheer luck. No, today he was going to find his Rose.


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

"One, two, three, four, five, Arnold, please sit back in your seat…" Juliet said as she tried to pass out the coupons for their morning meal at the McDonalds they had just pulled into. She knew she should have taken John's advice of passing them to the chaperones and letting them take charge, but she was their teacher after all, and she wanted to show that she had the authority that came with her job.

"Ms. Hatten!" Ben yelled from his seat, a frantic arm waving in the air inches away from Juliet's face.

"Not now Ben. You can tell me when we're off the bus." Juliet tried in vain to delay the boy's insistence against going to the museum. After seeing the Doctor in her dream as well last night, she was beginning to wonder if what Ben had to say held validity. After all, she too had been warned against going to the museum during the night. How many others on this trip had the same dream?

Juliet continued with passing out the coupons, trying in vain to tell the students the timeline for departing and the information about the headcount again. She had told these students the directions so many times that she wasn't sure if they were ignoring her on purpose or if they really were as forgetful as they seemed. The seniors had to know by now the routines of fieldtrips.

"We have forty-five minutes from when we leave this bus!" Juliet's voice rang over the coach's PA system. "Remember your coupon, otherwise you'll have to pay full price for breakfast. Your chaperones are to know at all times where you are, and if there are any problems, you'll have to deal with me or Mr. Smith." Just as she put down the PA the driver pulled her into a safer spot than the middle of the aisle as the hungry busload of teenagers ran to the exit as fast as they could, leaving chaperones and drivers in their wake. However, one young man stood in front of her, Ben.

"Ms. Hatten, can we talk?"

"Don't you want to get it line for breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry." Ben said as the last of the chaperones moved past them. Juliet looked out to the parking lot just beyond the bus and saw a few of the other students waiting for her and Ben.

"Why not? It's not that dream, is it? Cause it's only-"

"No! The Doctor told me that we can't go to this museum! It's dangerous!" Ben yelled as he stared at Juliet. One of the girls from the parking lot came on the bus.

"Ms. Hatten, I had the same dream, and so did the other people waiting for you," the girl told her. Juliet didn't know the girl's name as she was one of the band students and was riding on John's bus. "We tried to tell Mr. Smith, but he wouldn't listen."

"Look, go into the restaurant and I'll talk with Mr. Smith, and I'll tell him about it, okay? We'll make the decision as to what we'll do before we leave. We still have a few hours before we get there, and if nothing else, there's a mall just down the road from it we can go to-"

The students all raised their voices in protest around her and she could see John waving for her to come with him into the restaurant. "I will talk with Mr. Smith and we will decide together what to do. Now, let's go get in line for breakfast. Orange juice sounds good right now."

Juliet ushered the students off the bus and into the restaurant, taking a moment to find the calm confidence she usually had about her when in front of her students. It was harder this time though, as she had never needed to lead a field trip with only four hours sleep on a bus. Their trip last year had been an overnight one to Chicago, with only three hours spent in transit. Juliet collected her overnight bag from her seat and joined John on their walk into the restaurant.

"Happy Wednesday!" John said as he greeted Juliet stepping off the bus. "Anything interesting happen overnight?"

Juliet laughed. They had stopped at about two am to switch drivers and she had spoken with John then about how things were going. They had agreed to have a small meeting at each stop to check over any possible problems with the students or their travel plans. She thought about John's question again. "Actually, some of the students are trying to go to the mall instead of the museum."

"Yeah, I've gotten that every time I've led a group on this trip. We usually do stop there after everyone files through the museum as quick as possible. At least most of them walk through the Barnes and Noble in the mall."

John offered Juliet an apple out of his bag. Over thirty years of teaching had taught him to pack a breakfast for this part of the trip. Juliet had noticed that the bus drivers and a few of the seasoned chaperones had done the same thing. She bit into the apple, and caught the juice on her sleeve as she spoke. "It's not just that John. That group of kids kept going on about 'The Doctor' telling them not to go."

"Just a ploy. We've gone there every year without a problem," John said as he found a spot for the adults to sit and enjoy the beautiful morning air in the parking lot, offering around a box of cereal bars. "They just want to go to the mall."

Juliet bit into her apple again; enjoying this healthier option to the grease-laden food their students ate inside. "John, I've got a bad feeling about it this time. I've been there before in the past as well, and to be honest, I never felt at ease in it."

"I know you've been there, you were the one who insisted on getting tickets for it this year. Juliet, listen, this dream that these kids had is just a ploy to go to the mall and get in trouble. You know the administration would never allow it as is, plus we already paid for admittance. We can't cancel."

Juliet had noticed that the chaperones had filtered inside to the restaurant to find their assigned students and meet with them, to go over the day's itinerary. She herself looked over the schedule in her hand, the dream with the Doctor filtering back into her head over and over. "John, this is going to sound crazy, but I had the same dream."

John stopped mid-bite and saw the concern on Juliet's face. "Nothing is going to happen, okay?" John tried to reassure her, but she knew better.

"He told me that we'd be in danger if we went there today. How could I have the same dream as that group of students? Huh? How? Because I want to know."

John cleaned up the area in front of him as Juliet spoke. "Look, you connect with your students well, that's all it is. You've said it yourself, there are times you've worn the same outfits as students, there are times you've finishes sentences with them. You connect somehow, how I don't know. But we're going to this museum." John picked up the last remaining bits of wrappers and his bag and headed for the inside of the restaurant to freshen up for the morning, leaving Juliet alone at the table. It was rare for the two to disagree on anything, let alone argue about it. John would always at least consider what she said, and vice versa. However, she figured that he had just as little sleep as she did that night and wrote it off as that. She took her bag and headed inside as well to wash her face and freshen up. It was going to be a very long day.


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

Rose stood in the doorway of her flat, the weight of her bags threatening to pull her down to the ground below at any moment. Mickey had pulled into the parking lot with her Mum and was now blaring the horn. She needed to be at the airport an hour ago, but had received a panicked call on her mobile from her Mum stating that she couldn't pick her up. And yet, here she was, running up to her with Mickey. Jake hopped out of the back of the truck and called out for Rose. In her attempt to reply, her bags flew to the ground around her.

"This was so much easier-" Rose said as she caught herself about to mention His name again. But so much of her wanted to continue what she was about to say - that it was easier traveling in the TARDIS than on the commercial airlines. There were so many times in the last several months where she found herself frustrated at some little thing that was different from her previous life - both the one in the England she grew up in and the one with the Doctor where she had matured into the person she was now. Transportation aside, this was not the first time she caught herself comparing her life as it was now to how it was then. Though she knew the people around her could no longer stand it, she felt she owed it to herself to let part of that memory live on with her.

"You were about to say it, weren't you?" Mickey asked as he lifted a bag into the back of his truck. "You were!" he exclaimed as he hoisted the bag above him and closed the back.

"Look, I don't want any problems," Rose replied as she double-checked that everything was in order for her departure.

"What do you expect to find there? Huh? Do you expect the Doctor to come running to you with open arms? How is this going to work? You've left us too many times for him Rose, and it hurts. Have you ever thought about that?" Mickey asked, having pulled Rose aside away from the truck. "And what happens if you don't come back?"

"Mickey, you've dealt with this before, many times in fact." Rose knew that she should feel guilty, but did not. The only thing she felt was escalation over the fact that she might be near a place where the Doctor had been.

"Yeah Rose, so many times that I ran away to a parallel world so I wouldn't have to face the fear of losing you again. It hurts Rose. Every time you mention his name, look away with that look, or catch yourself deep in thought, I can tell that you're elsewhere entirely - with him, not with me and Jake, or your Mum and Pete. Now, not only do we have to see you run off for him again, but this time you might not come back. Are you ready to give up your dreams of being with your family, and my family, to run around the universe playing hero? And what do you do when he finally leaves you behind? Huh? Look at Sarah Jane. Look how much it hurt her. Are you ready for that?"

"That's enough Mickey," Rose said with a bite in her voice. "I made my decision that day at Torchwood Tower, but Pete came and changed all that."

"Lucky for you that he did, or you'd be living in that void with all those Daleks and Cybermen. That's no life Rose."

"Mickey-"

"No Rose. I'll drive you to the airport, but I want you to remember the things you may be leaving behind by going there to look for your Doctor."

Mickey walked over to the truck and hopped in while Rose took one final look around her. If everything went according to plan, then this would be the last time she'd see any of this, her family, and her new home. But this wasn't really home, she had been pretending all this time, playing Rose the domestic, Rose the travel agent, Rose the daughter to Jackie and Pete. Even though she had always wanted these things, those wants changed after she had been away from them for even a day; she had found a different life for herself on the TARDIS and she wasn't sure what she'd give up to get it back.

"Come on Rose, you're not the only Tyler with a place to go!" Rose heard her Mum yell from behind her as she ran over to the SUV and climbed in the backseat next to Jake. "I have to get to the doctor or this baby will come right here!"

Rose heard only two words in her mother's sentence, and with those two words she knew that this trip was the right choice to make. She patted the pocket of her purse with a free hand, knowing the letter inside addressed to her mother, her final goodbye before she found her Doctor.


	8. Chapter 7

Sorry about the bit of delay, I've had a touch of the flu and also posted my "reserve" early.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed - thanks for your critiques and support!

* * *

CHAPTER SEVEN

The busses pulled up to the entrance of an old, almost decrepit mansion just outside of Honeysuckle, New York, a small town a few hours west of the city. Even though it was a museum, it looked more like a mausoleum or a funeral home that had grown to be too big for itself over the years. Paint chipped on some areas of the building while others were in various states of disrepair, and that was where the paint was even visible. Other parts of the building were overgrown with thick, dead layers of ivy. Even though she had been there just three years before, Juliet looked out the window from her seat on the bus with dread; she looked up forward and saw Ben looking back at her with the same expression on her face. It had changed so much since anyone from their little community had been there four years ago on their big pilgrimage to New York City, and then the choir's big trip onto England.

The kids had confronted her just before they got back on the bus at the McDonalds. Ben was once again nominated to ask all the questions for the group and kept bugging her until she had to threaten him with a call to his parents. Juliet, frustrated over the situation, had just told the kids who were too nervous to go into the mansion to stay out on the front porch. Nothing could happen to them out there, could it?

Juliet closed her eyes one last time before she had to take charge as the leader of the group, more like the general leading her troops to their death from what she understood. She closed her eyes for a moment and images from her dream flashed before her eyes. She could still feel the Doctor with his hands on her shoulders, the warmth of his breath creating a gentle breeze over her face, and the light scent of jasmine that seemed to emanate from every inch of his body when it was near hers. She wished she could curse at that moment, as it really had been too long since she was last on a date; she was willing to have a crush on any man she was near that was close enough to her age and type.

"Ms. Hatten…" Juliet heard a few of the students whine from around her. She didn't want to open her eyes, she wanted to relish in the images of the dream, no matter how disturbing the message the man gave her in the end was, but in the end, it always came down to the duties around her - in this case, the responsibility she held for her students. She opened her eyes and saw Ben and his friends standing around her, the bus driver telling the kids to sit down.

"Ms. Hatten, we can't go in there," Ben said.

"Well, you don't have to, that's what we worked out in the end, right? You can sit outside on the porch and talk, or read, or listen to your iPods. It's really up to you what you want to do. I've been here before, and so has Mr. Smith, and there is nothing wrong with this place." The students gave her a look that showed their disbelief. "Look, nothing is going to happen, okay. Now sit down before the bus driver kicks you all off and I have to call your parents." The crowd around Juliet dissipated at the word "parents" and she herself took a deep breath before making the final announcements.

"Before we go in," Juliet's voice rang over the bus's PA, "I have a few announcements." The group groaned. "We have three hours to enjoy ourselves here. I've been here before on several occasions and have loved it each time. Be sure to take some time for the shop at the end, I'm sure you'll all want to stock up on cheap candy before the performance this evening. We have a total of three hours before we meet again in front of the museum. Please stay with a group, no wandering off on your own, but that shouldn't be too hard for you. And those of you who wish not to enjoy the museum may stay on the front porch. The busses will be locked…" Juliet continued with her usual lines of announcements and stood ready for the onslaught of students about to push her over on their way out of the bus.

As Juliet stepped out, she saw John running towards her.

"We've got a problem," John said, slightly out of breath.

"What?"

"Just spoke with the owner, and she insists that no one can stay outside unsupervised. Said there was a problem a year ago with graffiti or vandalism or something." John took in another deep breath. "They'll all have to go in the museum."

"That could be a problem," Juliet said and looked over at the group of doubting teens on the front porch with Ben leading the group's protest. "They," she motioned towards the porch, "refuse to go inside."

"What did you tell them?"

"What we agreed upon earlier this morning. Can you talk to them?" Juliet asked, knowing that John would give in.

John nodded and walked toward the group of teens, motioning for them to go inside. They all stood up from their spots and wandered in slowly, followed by John. Juliet stood in front of the building and thought she saw a wall age before her eyes. "It's just your imagination, nothing's wrong," Juliet whispered to herself before taking her first steps towards the building in three years. She didn't know why she was so nervous about this. She had been there before and knew what to expect; this was one of those places that just didn't change, no matter what the trends were. Each room featured a decade from American history, from period clothes to music and art. She took another step and thought she heard the sound of laughter carried on the wind around her. "It's just my imagination," she whispered again and took one, then another, step up the stairs of the museum's porch. The wind blew, and despite it being a rather warm day for March, it chilled her to the bone. Juliet took one last look at the yard and parking lot behind her before stepping through the door.


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

Rose met up with the American tour guide at the airport in New York City, nervous at her first endeavor overseas as a tourist and as a group guide. She looked over the list of the English travelers with her and frowned. Three people had to cancel last minute, which meant that there were only two other people from her home country. Even then, could she call it home?

Rose looked around and quickly found her American counterpart, smiling a big smile and taking a picture of her US-based group. Just as the camera flashed, the woman saw Rose and waved her over.

"Nice to finally meet you, I'm Diana, but you can call me Di."

"Like the-" Rose caught herself before she made comparisons to her old life once again.

"The what?" Di asked.

"It's nothing. Just a relative's name. My aunt, on my father's side. Don't get to see her much." Rose tried to stop herself before she rambled off like the Doctor often did, but she looked at the woman, who looked just like the princess. She'd have a hard time not confusing the two, though, with no royal family in this alternate world, this could be the same woman.

"Well, the bus is waiting. Long day ahead," Di handed Rose the newest copy of the itinerary.

"There must be a mistake. It says we're going to the museum today, but our tickets are for Wednesday."

"Oi!" Di yelled. "They double booked. Gave us half our money back though and tickets for today, Monday, or is that a problem Rose?"

Rose looked down at her itinerary, disappointed that she could not be at the museum on the day that she though she needed to be there. But, she figured that it was at least the same week, and if she really was going to meet the Doctor there, he'd find a way to work around time, in one sense or another. Up until that point, she hadn't realized just how confusing a timeline like the Doctor's really was, and she tried to push it out of her mind just as she had often done on the TARDIS. There were plenty of times he had tried to explain it to her while on their travels, and at the time it made sense. Of course, she could also tell that the ship itself helped it make sense to her. Of course, now, without the aid of its computers and soul, nothing really made sense to her anymore, but she just figured that it was grief finally taking a toll on her.

"All travelers to the bus!" Di yelled and the group of tourists followed her, Rose at the end.

"This is silly," Rose muttered under her breathe.

"What?" Di asked back.

"Nothing. Just nothing." Rose continued to walk up and into the bus. She had traveled many times before, but this was the first time really traveling in this world, the one where she had a dad but no Doctor. She had spent so much time traveling in the last few years but now, she felt as if she were trapped on this tiny little planet, even though she had not explored more than a few cities of it, being trapped in London most her life.

She stepped foot on the bus, finding a comfortable spot and pulled a small travel pillow out of her bag in an attempt to get some sleep, but the other people traveling with her kept waking her up to introduce themselves. Didn't they understand that she wouldn't be returning with them? That her ticket was only for a one-way trip? She knew that she would never see Jackie again, or Pete, or Mickey, or a zeppelin flying over London. She knew that and accepted it, as long as she could see one man - the Doctor.

Finally, after the longest three hours of her life, they pulled up to the most beautiful museum she had ever seen. Even though the brochure said it was over two hundred years old, the building looked brand new, despite the architecture revealing the truth of its age. She took her bags and stepped off the bus, Di telling the building's story to her group. Rose didn't care about its history however and stepped forward, running into the perfectly manicured museum.

"It's beautiful!" Rose yelled as she spun around the lobby, a large fireplace making the giant room more inviting than it already was.

"I'm glad you like it Dearie. What's your name?" an old woman asked Rose from behind a desk near the door.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you," Rose said, caught somewhat off guard. "I'm Rose Tyler ma'am. And you are?"

"Just the caretaker, nothing more."

"But you must have a name-"

"Not one that would really matter," the old woman responded, her hand gliding over the page of a book that looked as old as the building itself. "Here you are, Rose Tyler. Yes, I see."

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"Well, Di sent me your group's itinerary, and somehow, you ended up being booked with a room here, while everyone else was booked at the hotel down the road."

"That's odd," Rose replied, the years of travel with the Doctor having heightened her senses for when something different was going on. "Wonder why that could be."

"I'll call down there and find out." The woman picked up a phone and called what sounded to be a hotel owner that she was fairly familiar with. Just at that moment, Di walked in, her tour group closely behind her.

"You missed my story Rose!" Di said as she put her arm around Rose. "You would have liked it. All about tragic love."

Rose smiled a beleaguered smile, "I know enough about tragic love. What's with me not staying at the hotel with everyone?"

"Oh, that. No big deal. You just booked yourself so late that they had run out of rooms."

"But we're both travel agents. Isn't that odd."

"No, happens all the time. Got you a special room here instead tonight. You just have to duck you bags in the office for the day. But enjoy!"

"But there should be open rooms. Cancellations."

"Just enjoy! Call it a special perk of your job," Di said as she wandered off with her tour group. Rose sighed as she sat down in an oversized lounge chair next to the fireplace.

"Figures," Rose said as she stared into the fireplace, alone in the lobby aside from the old woman who had just hung up the phone.

"She's right Rose," the woman said. "I just got off the phone with the hotel manager down the road. They're booked solid for the next four nights, so you'll have to put up with my hospitality." The woman wandered over to a teapot at the end of her desk and poured a cup of tea for Rose and herself before coming over to the fireplace with them. "Here, have some tea."

"Thanks," Rose said, not a shred of anxiety left in her body. She took a sip, "this is wonderful, so relaxing."

"Enjoy Dearie," the woman said as she took Rose's bag from her and put it behind her desk for the moment. "It's not often I get to entertain visitors overnight here anymore, what with all the big hotel chains going up down the road. We started as a hotel after all, back in 1776 when the US was formed."

"Wasn't it formed in 1789 when it seceded from Spain?" Rose asked, proud of the history lessons Pete had been giving her and yet suspicious of the woman's slip up. It had been 1776 where she had grown up, but it was different over here. Everything was different.

"Enjoy the tea. After your tour group passes through, I'll set up your room for the night."

"Thank you," Rose said, the tea, the chair, and the fireplace all relaxing her into her chair, the cup on the table near her. "Doctor…" she whispered as she fell into a gentle sleep, the stress of the last few days and hours working against her body.

As she crossed the threshold into true sleep, she though she heard the word "Rose" echo on the wind.


	10. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

"No, no, no, no, no!" a frantic voice yelled as a frantic hand scratched the back of a head on top of a rather frantic Doctor. "Juliet, No!" the Doctor yelled, jumping around the view screen in the TARDIS. Since the Doctor came to the dreams of Ben, Juliet, and the other members of the band and choir, he had tried to come up with some sort of plan to veer off the museum owner, a woman who he now knew could travel through space and time within that very building, without the aid of a TARDIS or any other sort of device. Was he out to actually stop her? Not really. He planned to use that same ability to reach his Rose, and nothing else really mattered, but he knew he couldn't do only that without having a guilty conscious. He needed to get the innocent students and teachers out of the way first; there was no knowing what harm could come to them in such an unstable environment, and if any were harmed in the process, their blood would be on his hands.

"You can't go in there!" he yelled again, as if everyone in the group were able to hear him from the inside of his ship inside the little broom cupboard in the museum's basement, forgetting for the moment that he too was in there. He pushed at a lever and pulled at another, bells going off and lights flashing around him, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong during the group's slumber the night before. Of one hundred students, fifteen chaperones, four bus drivers, and two music teachers, he was able to reach the dreams of about ten people. These were the ten people he deemed were able to connect with his slightly psychic mind and would not fear the message that they were receiving, or at least how they were receiving it. Most people would be frightened if an alien, albeit, a rather good looking and charming one at that, came to them in their dreams. It just doesn't happen on planet Earth, at least not for many, and when it does, it is not an experience many want to repeat.

The Doctor did a few more scans with the computer on the TARDIS to try and figure out the museum owner's motivation. "What does she want?" he yelled, the TARDIS not responding this time. "It's not money, she can go back and get as much of that as she wants. It's not power, as she could have done the same. It's, people. But why?" he asked. "What else would motivate her?" He pushed a few more buttons on the console, this time searching for any other anomalies he might not have picked up before.

And the TARDIS beeped.

The Doctor looked over at his monitor, noting a slight glitch up the museum's attic, a spot he definitely wanted to look at more closely. He took his coat and sonic screwdriver and stepped out of the TARDIS. If he timed it just right, which he of course always did, he would be able to hop into an eddy of the rift and go back in time a bit, to before when Juliet and the students arrived. He took a few steps and could feel that familiar tug he felt while traveling through the vortex on his ship and he knew that he had done it. He was now standing in the deserted museum on a beautiful morning. He found his way to the staircase and made his way up to the first floor. When he arrived in the lobby, he noticed that he had jumped back in time about sixteen hours or so. "Good, plenty of time," he said aloud, forgetting for the moment that he was now traveling alone. He took out his sonic screwdriver and began to scan for other eddies of the rift, to see where or when he might travel as he walked the building's corridors.

As he began his journey along the museum's tour route, he stopped when he picked up a familiar fragrance. "Rose?" he asked aloud and began to scan with the screwdriver again.

"Doctor…" Rose's voice echoed on the wind around him, but there was no wind, not even a gentle breeze that should accompany a building's air system or fans or any other sort of breeze one would find in a 200 year old building.

"Rose!" he yelled. "Rose, where are you?" he ran to the base of the stairs, tripping over a chair near the fireplace, a sudden peaceful warmth filling him, scaring him, and yelled again. He listened and he scanned, but there was no trace of the woman he loved anywhere nearby. "Rose," he whispered one last time, the word bittersweet on his tongue and in the air around him.

"She's not here," an old woman in eighteenth century dress said from behind him.

The Doctor turned around and saw the little woman. "What do you mean, 'She's not here?'"

"You should know, with your fancy flashlight, that she's not here. Why would she be?" the woman took a few steps towards the Doctor, her hands folded over her front as if in prayer. "If this 'Rose' does come, I shall have to let you know. Now, how did you find your way into my museum? We're closed today."

"I've been here all day with the music group. I'm one of their chaperones, John Smith."

"Well, Mr. Smith. I just spoke with you on the phone and you sound different, and you're not due to arrive for another two hours."

The Doctor smirked a little. He knew he shouldn't have used that name, but couldn't remember why at the moment. "Well ma'am, everyone tells me that."

"And you look different as well, from the last visit," the woman said. "As long as you're here though, why don't I give you a little tour."

"No, I'd rather show myself around, thank you though." The Doctor walked towards the stairs but felt a firm hand grasp around his arm.

"I have to open the rooms first," the woman said and she walked up the stairs, an air of dignity and age surrounding her.

The Doctor took the moment and scanned the room again, "I know you're here Rose, I just heard you, I felt you, I even smelled you." He was frantic and began to run around again.

"Don't," the old woman appeared from her office.

"But how, you were, there, here-" the Doctor trailed off, trying to make sense of the woman's sudden shift from being upstairs to being in her office without an entrance other than the one he was standing in. He thought of the rift, a cold chill ran through his spine, "Right. So who are you really, what are you really."

"Just the caretaker, nothing more," she said. "May I take your coat, get you a room to relax in?"

"I'd rather keep my coat, thanks, and I have dwellings for the night."

"I know," she said. "I've seen your blue box down in the basement," she put her arm in his, "and I have to say I'm rather impressed." The woman began to glide her free hand over the doctor's coat. A heavy scent began to take over the Doctor and for the first time in this generation, he began to feel woozy. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to sit down for some tea at least?" the woman asked, the Doctor's body feeling heavier and heavier as time ticked by slower and slower. Part of his mind tried to pull him out of the sudden need for sleep, but while the mind was willing, the body could not and he felt himself being led over to a chair near the fireplace. He blinked his eyes open for a moment and thought he saw Rose sitting across from him, asleep as well, but after another blink, she was gone.

The thought of Rose, being trapped in this place at some time in some dimension shook him awake. "No!" he yelled, the fury in his voice pushing the old woman away and she retreated elsewhere, else-when in the museum. He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned for the anomaly the TARDIS had found earlier; it had grown stronger since he emerged from the ship. He ran up the stairs and ran into the first door that he thought would get him to his destination but instead found himself in a pink bathroom, a tub full of warm water and bubbles in front of him.

"Would you like a bath Dearie, it will calm you down. Then, we can talk about what you think is going on here," the woman said as she drew up the bath. The Doctor smelled that same heavy scent and felt the woman pulling his overcoat off of him. "I'm sure you'd like to relax," she said and the Doctor began to feel woozy again.

"I-" he tried to reply, but found his body fighting his mind for control. He just wanted to get in that tub, to sink into those bubbles, but he knew that if he did, he would fall victim to this old woman and her plans. He took a deep breath, "No, I can't!" He pushed back at the woman, who fell into the tub with his overcoat. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver just in time and began to scan again, noticing that the anomaly from upstairs was even stronger than it was a moment ago. He ran out of a door inside the room and found himself in a small bedroom, as pink as the bathroom was before. This time, he noticed the wallpaper looked like a candy store he once visited in his ninth carnation shortly before boarding the Titanic. He cringed and was about to run out when he noticed a black bag with the initial "RT" embroidered in pink letters on it. Could it be? He walked over to it and opened it, the scent of Rose's laundry detergent filled him with sudden memories of the woman. He smiled and shed a tear as he sat on the down-turned duvet next to the bag, at peace for a moment. He went through the small bag and discovered a picture that caught his eye, not of Rose, but of himself. He closed his eyes and savored the moment for as long as he could stretch it before he had to run again.

Always running, he was so tired of the chase and just wanted to stay still for the briefest moment. But first, he wanted his Rose. He had it all planned out too. He'd get her, pull her onto the TARDIS, and set the coordinates for Barcelona - they had never made it there yet. Then, they'd take a week or two and enjoy one of their resorts, and relax, and pick up where they had left of, before he had vanished into oblivion. Then he'd find a way back to Pete's world where he'd let Rose have a proper goodbye with her mother; if he didn't Jackie would kill him when it actually came time to seeing her again, if only by accident. And then he'd let the TARDIS take over as she usually did, and just let her take sail and set course.

But first, this dilemma of getting Rose back, which he'd attend to after the pain in the back of his head went away, which would only happen after he woke up, because, in his last moment of consciousness, he saw the old woman standing over him with an old candle stick. "How cliché," he said aloud as shades of red and black slowly overtook his existence, his sonic screwdriver dropping from his grasp until it came to a stop at the bottom of the staircase just outside the bedroom. The staircase that led to the anomaly that led to the answer, of now, how to save his Rose.


	11. Chapter 10 Part 1

Yes, another delay, but I had to work overtime last week and had no energy left to do this justice. Figured it was better to write it with energy than to insert a string of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's in the middle of it.

Where did we leave off? The Doctor has warned the kids and Juliet not to go to the museum, but did they listen? No. Rose has had a cuppa in the foyer and fallen asleep, and it's just plain creepy in general right now.

* * *

CHAPTER TEN - Part 1

Juliet took her first step into the old museum, the sights and sounds of the darkened foyer assaulting her senses. She didn't know what to address first, the musty odor that threatened to envelop her or the darkened woodwork that reminded her of the funeral home she had to sing at for the funeral of her favorite student. As she walked deeper into the museum, a dark color on the wood caught her eye. She reached out to feel it, a splinter of the wood poking into her hand. She pulled back at once, noting the small drop of blood forming where the sliver of wood was still visible. She cursed under her breath, resisting the urge to yell out loud and instead pulled a tissue out of her bag, her brain choosing that moment to reminder her that she had left her tweezers at home. There's always something forgotten on such trips as these, and the missing implement was one such thing.

In her attempt to not make a fool of herself for the ghosts these walls hid, as it seemed as if she were alone in the building, Juliet tripped backwards over an antique tea service; the clatter of the metal falling onto the marble floor, her bloodied hand hitting the silver tray, staining it momentarily. This time she gave into the desire to swear and muttered a few choice words under her breath. She knew she shouldn't have come into the museum, she knew she should have listened to the Doctor in her dream, but did she? No, she didn't. She listened to the voice of reason, the voice that demanded she enter and actually use the ticket her budget paid for. Knowing that she needed to right her wrong, Juliet turned around to pick up the tea set and saw an old woman standing between her and the doorway. She wanted to leave, collect the students and correct her mistake, but she knew that now was no longer the time.

Juliet collected the last of the bits of the tea service as the woman closed the door and locked it; the older woman turned around and smiled at the younger as if she knew that Juliet was nervous to be there.

"Don't worry dearie, there's nothing to be afraid of," the woman said as she took Juliet's hand, helping her up and leading them both deeper into the foyer. The woman looked down at Juliet's hand just at that moment, "Oh dear, what happened?"

"It's nothing. No bother really," Juliet pulled her hand away and wrapped the tissue around it. "I wouldn't want to waste your time…" Juliet stumbled on her words, looking at the woman for a name badge or some other clue as to what to call her.

"It's all part of my job as the caretaker of this museum," the woman said, leading Juliet over to a chair in her office. "If I don't take care of this place, no one will," the woman's muffled words echoed in a small cabinet that she withdrew a first-aid kit from which she opened and found a pair of tweezers and a bandage. But rather than see these tools, Juliet instead noticed a calendar.

"That's strange," Juliet whispered, looking over at the calendar that read "24 September, 1945."

"What's strange?" the woman asked.

"The calendar over there. That's not the right date.

"It was at one time for this room."

"Well, why keep an old calendar? Especially when running a business such as this?"

The woman came over to Juliet with the kit, holding out a set of tweezers she could borrow for the time being. "There are times I need to be reminded that this building is not always of this time, but of the times of the past. The old calendar does that for me," she said.

Juliet looked out the window just after taking the bandage from the woman and thought she saw a vintage car from 1956 drive past, but she wrote it off as only being her sleep deprived imagination. "Well, I suppose it makes sense for it to fit the décor," she said, "after all, it is a museum."

"It's more than that really, it's living history. Come. Your colleagues are waiting for you in the banquet hall," the woman offered a hand to Juliet. "Let me show you there."

"Colleagues?" Juliet asked.

"Yes. Mr. Smith and the other chaperones. I've arranged a light breakfast for you and the other adults on the trip as I'm sure you can all use some time away from the children, if even for a moment as guests of my museum."

Juliet considered the offer for a moment. It had been such a long bus ride, and the thought of facing the students again began to wear on her. However, she knew that if she avoided her teaching duties, as she was more and more tempted to do since December, there would be serious consequences to face - both with the kids and their parents along with the administration and John. "I really should check on the kids," she said as she stood up, the woman blocking her exit to the door.

"Don't worry. There are plenty of staff members around to do so for you. Nothing can happen."

Juliet thought about the woman's statement. Were there really staff member around? There were on her last trip here, but that was four years ago. Aside from this woman today, Juliet had not seen a single soul employed by this museum. No staff, no students, not even the sound of John's laughter were to be heard anywhere.

"I'd prefer to walk around if that's okay. It was a long ride on that bus and I really want to explore your museum." Juliet used the first excuse she could think of; there was something unsettling about his place and this woman that made her want to flee as fast as she could.

"Are you sure?" the woman asked and Juliet noticed a strange heavy scent in the room.

"I…" Juliet's voice trailed off and she felt herself sink into her chair. "I, um…" Juliet struggled to think and the woman moved closer to her. Just then, she noticed the older woman held something like a small bottle in her hand. She shook herself from the daze. "I really should check on the kids. Don't want them breaking anything."

"So be it," the woman said as she opened the door to usher Juliet out. "You'll find your students upstairs." The woman dismissed Juliet back into the foyer. The sounds of John's laughter came from an open doorway behind Juliet. How had she missed that before? It was open when she walked in, but had she just not noticed it? Had John missed her tripping over the tea service? He never missed an opportunity to tease her about her clumsiness when at school, so why would this be different? And what was that scent? Juliet thought back to when she first walked in and remembered a similar scent then as well. What was going on? She walked towards the staircase, passing a fireplace and chairs along the way where an empty teacup sat. Juliet stopped and looked at the cup; a faint impression of lipstick lined its edge. She looked in and thought that it would have been nice to study how to read tealeaves at some point in her life. The pattern of the remains dotted the bottom of the cup, still warm from the tea.

"Ben! No!" The cries of a student caught Juliet's attention and she ran upstairs as fast as she could, she was about to enter the room she heard the cries from, but the door was locked.


	12. Chapter 10 Part 2

CHAPTER TEN - Part 2

"Here," the man in the pinstripe suit appeared from around the corner, his blue flashlight in hand.

"You? It was real?" Juliet asked, awestruck at the reality of the man from her dream come to life in front of her.

"As real as can be," the Doctor replied, brandishing the device at the door's handle.

"But where's your coat, the one you were wearing on the bus?"

"Lost it. It's a shame too, as it was my favorite." The Doctor adjusted a few settings on the screwdriver and within a few seconds, Juliet heard a metallic pop come from the door. "There you go. If you see my coat, could you hold onto it for me?" The Doctor was about to walk away, but Juliet caught his attention.

"What is that thing?" Juliet asked, pointing at the device.

"Sonic screwdriver. Many things can get in my way, but a locked door is never one of them. Only one like it because I made it." The Doctor held the device up for Juliet to inspect.

"That would come in handy for John's instrument repairs."

"More than that even," the Doctor replied, tucking the screwdriver into a pocket of his suit jacket, "anything and everything. But I'd best be off. Get these kids out of the museum and get as far away from here as possible."

"Can't."

The Doctor was about to run off again. "What do you mean, 'Can't?' You did hear me tell you not to come here? To go down the road to the mall. Right?"

"Yes, but I was overruled."

"I picked you Juliet because I thought you were smart."

"But I don't have seniority. Also, that woman locked us in. The door probably won't budge. And it wasn't just the 'normal' locking in, she had a key and everything. We can't get out."

The Doctor stopped for a moment in thought. "Okay, you go check on the kids and I'll unlock the door and take care of that woman for you, then you can all leave and be safe." Which was mostly true. He hadn't planned on stopping the old woman, just finding Rose and taking her back with him. For the first time ever he only wanted to be selfish and think of himself for once, rather than take care of the underdog in distress, take Rose's slow road rather than any other path imaginable.

"Doctor?" Juliet asked, breaking him from his thoughts.

"What is it?" he asked back.

"What's going on here?"

"I'll explain later," he said before he ran off, leaving Juliet alone in the hallway and a room full of fighting teenagers next to her. Juliet took a deep breath and opened the door to a bathroom full of ravenous teens, pushing and pulling at each other, and in the middle of it were Ben and a senior boy from the band. The sight of the garish pink candy striped wallpaper and the overpowering scent of a bathtub full of bubble bath met Juliet's senses and for the briefest of moments, she felt overwhelmed and ill. After taking a breath and taking in the lush yet decayed décor of the 1880 period-style bathroom, her eyes met the two boys in the middle of the group pushing and pulling at each other in a near fistfight.

"We have to get out of here!" Ben yelled, pulling at one of the other kids near him.

"Why? Because that Doctor guy told you to?" the other student mocked Ben.

"Can't you see? Look in the tub, under the bubbles. That's the Doctor's coat!" Ben reached into the tub and started pushing the bubbles away, but they just kept moving back to the center where his arms were. "It's right there!"

"What's going on in here?" Juliet asked in her sternest voice possible, one only reserved for when someone was in serious trouble with her. The students all froze in place, eyes wide with the realization that someone was about to get into trouble.

Just as Juliet was about to speak again, to ask each student the happenings, the children all began to speak up at once, each shouting louder than the person next to them, all to make sure that Juliet could hear only their side of the story.

"Quiet!" Juliet yelled and the group fell silent again. "That's better. One person at a time, raising your hand, tell me what is going on. Ben." Juliet looked at the boy who looked back with sheepish eyes that were turned down to the floor. She always found it odd how at a moment of truth, children often looked away in shame, when that was the moment they needed most to make eye contact and project an air of truth. "Ben," Juliet had lowered her voice, "you can tell me what's going on okay." She took the young man aside to the exterior of the group. "But I want you all to know that if I need to find you, I will and you will tell me what's going."

"Okay Ben, what's happening? Is this about that dream last night?" Juliet tried to reassure the young man.

"Mr. Smith made us come in the museum, you said he wouldn't."

"I know I said that, and I shouldn't have. But, what's going on right now? Why were you fighting?"

"No one believes that we're in danger, especially those seniors."

"Ben. Nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen-"

"But the Doctor!"

"No buts Ben. I know you think you're right, but it was just a dream."

"No it wasn't!"

Ben and Juliet paused mid-conversation; his tone had shocked her, as he was the last person to ever speak up like that. Ben was a pacifist, the peacekeeper, the motivator, and the mediator for his peers and friends, even if he was picked on for being so. Juliet knew that he had been shaken by the dream - they all had - but his behavior, and fighting with other students, was not acceptable.

"He told me he came to you too, last night, which is why I had to speak up for everyone. He told me everyone's names who he spoke to. He said-"

"What he said doesn't matter Ben," Juliet said, wishing deep down that she could acknowledge the Doctor's existence to her student. That's what bothered her with her job, teaching, the fact that the minute she signed that contract she lost her ability to speak what she really wanted to say. She looked down at Ben who looked back at her with scorned eyes.

"Why won't you tell the truth?" he asked.

Juliet knew he'd see through her on this and she asked the boy to follow her into the hallway. "Ben, sometimes as adults we can't say the truth."

"But!"

"Sometimes we have to do what we think is wrong because in actuality, it's right."

"But!"

"Will you stop with this Doctor nonsense?"

"Only if you admit that you dreamt about him last night as well."

Juliet stopped at Ben's sudden stalemate. She didn't want to admit to the students what was going on, as that would be admitting her mistake of not fighting harder for their safety. This argument was getting too personal for her comfort.

"You did this with Sam too," Ben whispered, coming close to tears with those words. "When he died, you tried to hide it from all of us."

"Ben,"

"No, why can't you admit to the truth? Admit we're in danger?"

Juliet sighed and closed her eyes. "Because, there are times as an adult that you become afraid, and when those times come, you try harder and harder to cling to what you think is normal. I did dream of the Doctor last night Ben, and the truth is, it, he, scared me. The more he told me, the more I didn't want to hear and the more I didn't want to hear the more I wanted to pretend that everything was normal, which it wasn't." Juliet couldn't believe that she had admitted so much, but in the current situation, there was no other choice. "The truth is Ben, we are in danger, and I tried, I tried so hard to get this all to change before we came here, but it didn't happen, we're still here. Fate drew us in, so we have to draw it out, face our fears. Okay?"

"Okay," Ben whispered.

"Here's the plan, tell the other kids that there's a sale on candy in the gift store downstairs, lead them away from here and I'll be right behind you all to make sure that everything's okay. Find Mr. Smith and tell him that there's a problem upstairs and he is to meet me up here as soon as possible. Get out of here as quick as you all can and get to the busses; I'll be back before you know it. The front door should be open."

Ben nodded his head in agreement and ran down the corridor to the nearest rooms to tell his classmates Juliet's new lie. She just hoped that she could fix all of this in time.


	13. Chapter 10 Part 3

Thanks to everyone for the supportive reviews - it's so motivating to come to ff and see them, it just makes me want to write more. Please let me know if some of this ever gets too wordy; I tend to try to read a lot as well as play description games with friends and family all in the hopes to make my writing better.

And in response to the question "Why doesn't anyone listen to the Doctor?" I must say that if anyone did, there wouldn't be a story to tell.

* * *

CHAPTER TEN - Part 3

Juliet looked down the dusty corridor and saw the light shimmer off the specks of dust floating around her, and for a moment she thought she was safe back at her grandparents home in Wisconsin. As a child she would often dance around their living room pretending each speck was a faeries and that she was one too. But this was not her childhood; this was not the safe haven of her childhood adventures with the dust faeries. No, as much as she wanted to pretend she was home, away from the stress of pretending day by day that nothing was wrong, that no one died, she couldn't. She had been pretending for far too long, pretending that everything was perfect, but today just proved that it was not. Ever since Sam died, she knew that it was not.

Juliet leaned against the corridor wall and listened to the sounds of the children shuffling through the exhibit rooms, arguing, laughing, but not really knowing what was going on. In situations such as this one, she usually gave a few minutes to the students to actually try to follow her directions, which usually wasn't the case. However, as she stood in the hallway, the voices quieted down and soon she realized that either something was very wrong or she was alone on this floor of the museum. She stepped forward and pushed the door open to the first room, the bathroom, and entered again where she was met by silence, stillness, and a tub full of water. She walked closer to the tub, curious about what was going on. She put her hand on the edge of the tub, not knowing what she'd find. A lump of nerves gathered in her throat as she closed her eyes, reached out, and felt the coolness of the water in the tub. Nothing was wrong.

She opened her eyes to look into the tub. When the students were all in here earlier, there was a coat at the bottom. She pushed some of the almost deflated bubbles out of the way and reached down to the bottom of the tub where her hand met damp upholstery fabric. She reached around it with her fist and pulled up the coat she had seen the night before in her dream, the Doctor's coat. It may be wet, but with any luck, she could find a way to get it dry. Juliet looked around the display and saw a stack of towels; she took one and wrapped it around the coat and placed it under her arm.

As she started to check the rest of the room for anything odd, Juliet's mind met her with just part of a list of her million questions. Did the Doctor ever feel this when it was wet? How could he move in it then? The man was so slight of frame that she was surprised that he didn't snap in half under the weight of the coat when dry, let alone wet. Juliet stopped and tried to wring the excess water out of the coat, both to aid in her carrying it and to help it dry more quickly. She unfortunately succeeded in neither effort as her hand neared a pocket that seemed to bulge with books and maps. Was it her imagination or were they bigger on the inside? Juliet shrugged off the thought as nonsense and finished surveying the now empty and normal looking nineteenth century bathroom. She looked up from her spot near the tub and saw an arrow on the wall pointing her to her next destination on the tour - the master bedroom.

Juliet followed the route and walked into an equally pink candy striped bedroom with the biggest fluffiest bed she had ever seen. Whoever would get to sleep in here surely would be lucky. She continued through the room and heard a small whisper from the other side of the bed. She was not alone?

"Hello? Who's there?" Juliet asked. "Show yourself!"

She heard another whisper and the sound of a hand going over another person's mouth.

"If this is one of my students, you're in serious trouble if you don't show yourself," Juliet repeated in her most authoritative voice she could muster in this condition. She walked around to the other side of the room and saw Ben crouched next to a clarinet player named Clarice, both of them hiding from Juliet.

"Ben, what are you still doing up here?"

"It's the things in this room. They belong to Rose."

"And who exactly is Rose? There is no 'Rose' on this trip."

"But there is Ms. Hatten," Clarice replied. "Rose is the Doctor's companion, and he's looking for her."

Juliet was about to speak but found herself stuttering on her first word. "What?" she tried to ask but was cut off by the student before she could continue.

"Rose has been traveling with the Doctor but they became separated. He told me this in my dream last night," Clarice said.

Juliet held up her hand to the student in an effort to find a moment of silence to think in. "What exactly is going on?" she asked. "Wait. Let me figure this out. I was told to stop you all from coming here, but couldn't. Clarice was told that this man was trying to find 'Rose.' But, why do I get the feeling that everyone got a different message?"

"Because we did Ms. Hatten," Ben replied. "The Doctor came to each of us in our dreams last night, and he told me to put the pieces together. All of the other students who had the dream were told to talk to me."

"Why you and not me?" Juliet asked.

"He said you were too old, and your imagination has grown dull. You wouldn't think any of this were possible if you were the one who was told to piece the puzzle together."

"Why me and not Mr. Smith?" Juliet asked.

"Because Mr. Smith is even older than you. He's too old to understand any of it. The Doctor said Mr. Smith would think this all a ploy to do something else."

"The Doctor was right on that one."

"Is that why we still ended up here?"

"Look. You ought to know the truth about this morning. I did have a dream with the Doctor in it last night. He told me to cancel the trip to the museum. I talked to Mr. Smith about it, but he said we couldn't. Ben, how much do you know?"

"Just that we're in danger."

"Okay, two things. First why are you still up here?"

Clarice picked up an overnight bag manufactured by an unfamiliar company and handed it to Juliet. "It's this Ms. Hatten. It belongs to Rose. I was told to look for it and retrieve it for the Doctor."

Juliet took the bag from the girl and added it to the coat she was still carrying. "I can take this for you Clarice," she said. "Now, second. You both need to get everyone out of this museum without creating a panic. Tell them that I've changed my mind and we'll be going to the mall when we're done here. That should get everyone to the busses. Tell Mr. Smith to meet me up here. Okay?"

Ben and Clarice nodded in agreement and ran out of the room through the door with the next tour arrow on it. Juliet stopped and surveyed the room for a last time, making sure that she had everything that might belong to this "Rose." Satisfied, she walked towards the door and stepped out into the hallway, the weight of the wet coat and now the overstuffed bag throwing off her balance as she took a step down from the doorway to the landing outside the room. In what seemed like minutes but in reality was seconds; she found herself lying face down on the old dusty blue carpeting, the light from the windows filtering through and touching a metallic object on the floor with a blue tip. She crawled closer and recognized it; it was the sonic screwdriver. She picked it up in her hand and it crumpled into small pieces; the blue tip had shattered on the floor where it must have landed. But when did this happen? She thought back to the Doctor opening the door with it just moments before and she remembered him saying that he was going to unlock the door so that they may all leave. She looked back at the broken screwdriver in her hands. How could he save them now if the tool he needed was both lost and broken? Torn to pieces in a young woman's hands?


	14. Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Scanning and panning, tracing and pacing; the Doctor was truly frantic. He had just taken the readings of the anomaly when he was downstairs, so what did he do? He ran upstairs, to the source. But were they there when he arrived? No, of course not. He turned around in circles, trying to find which eddy of the rift he had walked through to trace his steps backwards again, to find his way to where he once had been. Time, an oddity to most, seemed fluid for him most of the time and in most of the places he's visited, except this old museum. Here, he was flummoxed by the paths he had set foot upon over the course of his last few days. Was it only a few days, or was it a few centuries? He really could not be certain about any perception of time whilst he was within these forgotten walls.

He took a few steps here, a few steps there. He ran everywhere in the room that he was in, trying to find where he took the wrong turn down the wrong path in the wrong time, and quite possibly the wrong universe. Truth was, he had no idea what was really going, where he was, or even when he was. He stepped to the right and was here, in this room when he had been elsewhere a moment ago.

The Doctor scanned again with his sonic screwdriver and seemed to have found something up the staircase in front of him. So, what should he do but pursue this new thing. He took flight up the steps, at first step by step but as time went on ahead second by second he found himself skipping first a stair between each step, then two, then three until he found himself at a landing with several doors. The first seemed to go to yet another corridor and the second came from a bedroom whose door was open. He looked closer and saw several young men and women he recognized from the memories of the students the night before. He looked a bit more around him; there were two other doors, one leading to servant's quarters and the other an attic room. He scanned some more and noticed something interesting coming from the attic.

"Ben! No!" the cries of one of the students caught the Doctor's attention and he ran down the hall to the door where he heard the shouting come from, changing the setting on his sonic screwdriver along the way just in case he needed it. Just as he was about to open the door, he stumbled forward and almost tripped on a woman in her mid-twenties, Juliet.

"Here," the Doctor said, his screwdriver at the ready, sending its sonic waves to release the tumblers within the lock of the door.

"You? It was real?" the woman asked, her jaw open and eyes wide with awe; they had both rushed to the door at the sound of the student's screams so he was not shocked at the abrupt nature she had adopted, and after all, the last time they saw each other, she was unconscious. How many times had he gotten a similar reaction out of people he met? Entering dreams was not something he did often, if ever really since trying to learn how at the Academy centuries ago. But, try as he might, the reaction was always the same with humans, one of disbelief. The Doctor heard himself carry on a conversation with Juliet for the briefest of moments, heard the usual questions, and answered the usual answers. He had gotten to know her in the last few days, gotten to know her past, her hopes and dreams, and her character. Even though she had disappointed him by not canceling the trip, something he had suspected would happen anyway, he knew that he could trust her to save the day and take care of the children, get them out of there. If she could do that, he could save Rose.

He heard himself tell Juliet some sort of plan, one that involved him running downstairs to open a door, one that involved him doing something else, not rescuing Rose. His mind ran over it again. Had he just said that he would take care of that old woman?

"What's going on here?" Juliet asked just as the Doctor was about to run off for a final time.

"I'll explain later." With that, the Doctor turned around and ran off down the hall, leaving Juliet to fend for herself with the students. Even though he felt somewhat guilty for leaving her alone, he knew that she could handle it in the end. He readjusted the settings on the screwdriver and ran back down the corridor from which he came, and as he neared the end, something felt different, peculiar.

Something was not right.

The Doctor stepped out of the hall and onto the landing with the many doors when he smelled the musty odor again, the one he smelled earlier when the woman offered him tea and then the bath. He stopped and realized that not only was something not right, but he was not alone. Changing the settings on the screwdriver to serve as a makeshift weapon, he tried to turn around, but it was too late.

The woman caught the Doctor as he fell, a slight smile on her face; the knowledge that her plan was going to succeed evident in the grace of her strong movements. That is if the Doctor was able to see her face. "You won't get away from me this time, Dearie," were the last words he heard before at last succumbing to the powerful scent.


	15. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

Dripping water. Drip, drip, drip, splosh; drip, drip, drip, splosh. Why was it all Rose could hear was the water dripping somewhere near her? Why was it that she felt so groggy? She tried to move around, to wake up, but the more she fought the more she realized that she couldn't. Somehow, someone had managed to tie her up in, well, wherever she was. Rose took account of her senses and as soon as she could will her eyes open she did so only to remember what had happened. She had been drinking the tea, but she was so tired, and she must have fallen asleep. But what happened afterwards?

She tried to get her eyes to focus, to wake up and see the room around her, to survey for some sort of escape. In all her time with the Doctor she had quickly and easily learned that being tied up in a strange room did not end well unless there was a hero to be found. But where was the hero this time? She blinked a few more times, the tears returning to her dry eyes, and she could make out a tall thin form across the room from her, tied up in a similar fashion. Could that be who she thought it was?

"Doctor!" Rose tried to yell but found that her mind and body were not yet coordinated together enough for any sensible sound to be formed. Instead, a random string of vowels and consonants poured from her mouth and she struggled against the bonds that kept her in place. It was so white, the room, and its bright whiteness stung her eyes, making them tear harder than before. Or was it that she was crying? Maybe just a bit of both.

Rose struggled some more but smelled a heavy scent move across her in the room again. She remembered more. It was the old woman; she had given Rose the tea and there was that scent which made her fall asleep. That must have been how she had gotten to this room. But where was it? Judging by how bright it was, the windows faced the sun. A lot of good that did though, as she had no way of knowing what time it was; the room could face east or west. Rose fought to focus her eyes more, knowing that her sight could provide the answers she needed to fight for her freedom. She blinked a few more times and saw that the door was open from the room to a flight of steps leading down. Rose blinked a few more times and realized that she was in an attic.

"Doctor!" Rose tried to yell again but found that, along with her mouth not coordinating with her body, something was there to keep it from working right in the first place. She worked to try to free herself from the restraints and managed to move whatever had been placed over her mouth. "Doctor!" she yelled, succeeding at last in the endeavor, however she was met with little response. The Doctor groaned a little, turning his head, but was soon unconscious again. Rose shouted his name to wake him again but it was no use, the Doctor was out cold.

Rose fought to free herself from the bonds, knowing that she was now the only one to save the day. How could all this time pass and fate be so cruel as to only let her watch as her love died in front of her eyes?

As Rose fought to come to full consciousness, she began to see flecks of light dancing around the room. She looked around, trying to find the source and saw a camera-like device in the middle of the room along with a two other beds, both empty, but she feared that it might not stay that way. The caretaker walked in towards the device and adjusted a few settings. Light danced around her and soon she saw the light flicker the Doctor away.

"Doctor!" she shouted again, not caring that the woman knew she was awake.

"Well, how was your nap dear?"

"Don't you touch him!" Rose demanded, shouting the order with as much threat as she could muster despite the current circumstances.

"You're too generous. You were just given the chance to demand your freedom and you first thought of the Doctor. How kind. But I don't like kindness."

"Who are you?" Rose asked, looking at the woman again, "What are you?" she corrected herself.

"I'm human, just like you, nothing more, nothing less. Well, the last part was a lie. Thanks to something that happened to me when I was a child, I became immortal. Well, at least I think I did, I haven't really died ever, and it's been at least three hundred years." The woman walked over to the device in the room and adjusted a few knobs and levers and then took something out from the inside, a cup full of shimmering liquid.

"What is that?" Rose asked.

"Essence, soul, of the people who have been in this room before you."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I have the perfect system and you can't stop me. People have tried but no one has yet to succeed. See, I met a faerie when I was a child, a faerie that brought me this device. She told me to keep it safe for her, taught me how to use it. She told me that one day she'd come back. I didn't believe her until one day I actually opened the device and drank its silver nectar, drank the essence within." The woman adjusted a few more settings on the device. "In two hours time, your life will no longer belong to you Rose Tyler, but to me. Every worry you once had will vanish, every pain, every bad memory, will be gone, erased. In a way I am giving you freedom from your deepest fears. Many people welcome that fact in the end."

"Why don't you just die like you're supposed to?" Rose barked at the woman, trying to threaten her again.

"I'd say if you ever get to see your friend Jack you should ask him that question."

"What about Jack?"

"He's alive. Right now."

"Where?"

"Doesn't matter, you won't see him anyway. Soon, there will be nothing left of you." And the woman walked towards the device, turning a small dial as the dancing of the light increased around Rose.

"Let me go!" she shouted in vain one last time before the woman walked out of the room, the scent Rose had smelled when drinking her tea earlier had begun to overtake the space and she began to feel herself slip back into the sleep she had been in moments before.

"No, I can't," she struggled against the scent, some sort of a gas like what was used at the dentist ages ago, but the harder she fought, the harder it was to maintain consciousness. In her last moments before her final sleep came, she saw a woman just slighter older than she run through the flickers of the dancing light across the room. But to where in the space she never found out.


	16. Chapter 13

Happy St. Patrick's Day for those of you who celebrate it! Great news on this story - It's pretty much finished, I just need to do some editing. You should be able to expect a chapter/part a day (there's another mulit-part chapter coming up about Tuesday or so), and after that about a week's break before the next part of this series gets posted. I just need to make a few transitions between this story and the next, and find a good title for that one. The series' title is "Through the Garden," an unspecified number of DW stories about finding love.

* * *

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"The sonic screwdriver?" Juliet asked aloud, knowing full well that no one should have been there to hear her. She had just found herself in the predicament of having tripped on the floor and dropping Rose's bag along with the Doctor's coat, but in doing so, she discovered something troubling - the Doctor was in danger. Or, at least it seemed possible that he was.

Juliet picked up the pieces of the screwdriver and placed them in her own coat pocket for later and began to try to make sense of the situation at hand. They were all in danger, she knew that much. The Doctor told them not to come to the museum, but they did anyway, and because of it she probably put the Doctor in greater danger than he was already in himself. And now, there was this 'Rose' that needed to be saved as well. Was that what he came here for? Not to save them, but to save this other woman?

Juliet's head began to ache with the details of the situation s she collected the Doctor's items from the floor around her, the floor with the dusty blue carpeting and noticed the four doors behind her. Were those doors there the last time she visited, back in college? She stopped and looked, one door led from the bedroom she had been in, another from the corridor from whence she came. The third continued the tour through the servant's quarters but the fourth was new despite the peeling layers of paint and rusted handle.

Curiosity was about to get the best of her, adventure about to take her away, but then she remembered that there was a bus load of students awaiting her arrival so they could move on to the mall, to where they really wanted to be. It was a shame, all this history going to waste, no one discovering or enjoying it anymore.

Juliet took one last look around her and took in what would probably be the last glance at this old building, for after today she'd return to her old boring life with the constant reminders of the fact that youth too can die. She'd seen it before with Sam and she had only been teaching for two years. How many more funerals for children would she have to struggle through before that little piece of her would finally snap? She had come close this last time, but she could not tell anyone about it, even John. It wasn't until a party on New Year's Eve that she finally was able to get some sleep after the event; otherwise her dreams were riddled with nightmares that were too intense, too full of fear. Even now, it was rare for her to go a few hours without waking from one. That's why seeing the Doctor earlier had startled her. She had given into the idea that he was just another nightmare, just another remnant of something that had startled her deep in the night.

Juliet sighed, it was shocking how often her mind played over the details of the boy's death when she did not have something else to keep its attention. It wasn't as bad as it was before. The first week or two after she had found out, her mind had wandered whenever she was driving and she often found herself having to overcorrect at the last moment to prevent countless accidents. Even then, this semester she found herself carpooling with other teachers to avoid moments of the inevitable down-time that would lead to her demise, but there her mind went again, replaying events that in reality she could not change, even if given the choice.

Juliet took the items that fate left to her charge and descended down the staircase in front of her, taking in as much of the building as she could. Deep down she knew she'd never come here again because after this year, she had to escape from teaching, escape to a profession where she could hide her emotions, not care and not feel at every single second. She walked through the foyer and across to the door, which was unlocked, and thought back to the Doctor's promise of unlocking it for the students and her. However, as Juliet walked through the door and onto the porch, she was met with an unsettling sight. There were busses there alright, but every person had gone missing.

Fear rose from deep within Juliet and formed a lump in the back of her throat. What happened to everyone? Had the woman gotten them? How would she explain this to her administrators, let alone all those parents? She dropped her parcels and ran over to the busses, but as she ran onto the bus she had been on earlier that morning, she discovered that it was indeed another bus, not the one that had been chartered for their trip, despite it being identical down to the last detail.

Juliet ran off the bus and looked up at the ominous museum in front of her, which seemed to have aged even further. She allowed herself to regain her bearings and realized that whatever had happened not only took place here but on a larger, grander scale. The building was now almost literally falling apart in front of her. Windows were boarded up, plants dead, and leaves and debris overtook the gardens that had once been grand and spectacular. Juliet dreaded the thought of having to go back into the museum, but knew that her only ticket back to the normalcy of any life lie within those crumbling walls, and that ticket lie with the Doctor. She walked back to the porch and tucked the Doctor's things under her arm. She wanted to leave them there, in a safer place as she feared that they may only get in the way, but she knew better. Deep down, her soul understood what was going on, even if her brain did not, could not, fathom it. The changing of the building happening right in front of her eyes, the wrong date on the calendar, the ageless yet ancient rooms within. Was she traveling through time just by walking on these grounds?

There was a slight vibration in her pocket and she adjusted the items she was carrying so she could reach in and remembered that she had her cell phone on. Her hand touched the device and pulled it out. It seemed that she had a new voice mail. However, when she opened the phone, she saw something that scared her, the date. It was no longer March of 2007 but instead October of 2019. She was amazed that the phone still worked at all, still turned on let alone connected with the nearest tower. Certainly in twelve years technology would have changed? Right? It had to have.

The wind blew through her hair and caught her attention as she realized that it had begun to snow, but it was snow unlike anything she had witnessed before. As much as she felt safer outside the museum, she knew even more that the only way to true safety was back within those walls, if she could find it again.

"Doctor!" she yelled as she bounded into the deserted foyer and up the stairs to the landing where she had found the screwdriver. She put her parcels down to aid her dexterity and tried to make sense of what was happening when she noticed flecks of dancing light coming from the room that she had not been in before, the one with the door with the peeling paint. She looked around and called out the Doctor's name again and thought she heard a light moan come from behind the door. She took a few steps forward and was reminded of the dust dancing in the sunbeams she adored as a child and realized that this was not much different in appearance, even if everything else had changed. But deep down she knew that those dust faeries were completely different from this light. She proceeded further up to the door with caution, taking it step by step, her awareness at peak attention until she reached the door.

She put her hand on the handle and it opened on what seemed to be its own power, though Juliet knew that her own reflexes were to thank on that accord. She walked up the few stairs it took to ascend into the room filled with the brightest light she had ever seen, and a device in the middle with the faeries of light pouring out of it. This had to be the source of what all was happening. She ran over to the device, no longer worried about her safety and placed a hand on its top. When she did, she saw the Doctor out of the corner of her eye, tied up to a cot of some sort.

"Doctor!" Juliet half yelled, half asked as she ran over to where he was bound. She untied his bindings. "Are you okay?"

"Find Rose."

"What? Who?"

"She was right here, a moment ago, over there on that bed," he pointed to the cot where Rose had been tied up, "Then the lights started flickering and she disappeared with that caretaker woman."

Juliet started towards the other bed but then remembered her main reason for trying to find the Doctor in the first place. "What's going on?" she demanded, running back to the Doctor who was now trying to decipher the device. "Where are my students? Where did they go? Where did you take them?"

The Doctor stood up from the device. "I'm sorry, but I didn't take them anywhere"

"They've disappeared and YOU seem to know what's going on!

"I'm so sorry Juliet, but they weren't the ones who disappeared." He walked over to Juliet, sorrow overtaking his features, "You were."

"What?" Juliet gasped.

"Juliet Hatten, on the twelfth of March, back in 2007, you disappeared. That day in this museum, the day with Ben and Clarice, and John, and the chaperones and students, you were supposed to disappear, history wrote it that way. But here you are," he smiled, "alive and about to help me save my Rose."

"But, I have family, friends…"

"They looked for you, mourned you, and still miss you very much every day. Ben even sang at your memorial service, John played his trumpet. The police sergeant placed a single white rose on your grave."

Juliet was in shock, tears began to flow from her face and she felt the Doctor lead her over to a cot to sit on. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he whispered and tried to comfort Juliet, giving her a moment to take in the sudden truth that had changed her life. She hadn't even known yet how different everything was about to become. "Fate has given you the chance to start over again, however you want, whenever you want, but we can't go back to that day you disappeared. I'm sorry. I can't rewrite history for you."

"What?" Juliet asked.

"I'm an alien, with a spaceship that happens to be a time machine."

Juliet's tears stopped and her jaw dropped, the words she had just heard made no sense to her already broken mind. This had to be a dream, but yet, it was as real as anything else she had been through in her life.

"I know it's hard to make sense of, but it's very, very real, and I'll show you everything, if that's what you want."

"What?"

"Come with me? I'll find you a place to live your life if you help me find my Rose. Even if that life is on my ship with Rose and me."

Juliet thought for a moment. What was there to go back to in her life? How would she, could she even, explain what had happened to her? She supposed that she could come up with a story about amnesia or something, but she knew that everyone would figure out the truth, that she had disappeared from thin air for all of time.

One question lingered in Juliet's mind though, "When is it? The date? What's the date?" she asked.

"It depends where you are in this building really and how many eddies of this rift you walk through. I've been in the 1700s and 2100s all within this last week, and of course the week that your group toured the museum."

"Today's date Doctor, the day that I've been found."

"Twenty-fifth of December, 2009. Just long enough for your family to finally accept your disappearance, to some extent-"

"No one can really accept something like that though. Can they?" Juliet wiped the tears from her face.

"Not really, no," the Doctor whispered and hugged her. "But, you don't have to worry about it, not anymore. I'll make sure you find a home."

Juliet smiled a little and closed her eyes for a moment, feeling safe despite the circumstances. The truth didn't sting as much anymore now that she knew someone was there to point her in the right direction. "Now, about finding your Rose."


	17. Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"Right." The Doctor stood up and looked around the room. "You haven't happened to see my sonic screwdriver, have you?"

Juliet cringed at those words. "I did."

"Well, give it here woman."

"It's broken."

"You broke my sonic screwdriver?"

"No, it was already broken when I found it, down there, on the landing."

The Doctor ran over to the door and looked down it to the landing where Juliet had left Rose's bag and his coat. "That, right. Okay," he started down the stairway. "Where are the pieces?"

"Here, in my pocket."

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"Good," the Doctor picked up Rose's bag and his still damp coat. "Remember that space ship time machine I told you about?"

"Who could forget that?"

"You're about to see it first hand." He took Juliet's hand and began to lead her down to the depths of the museum's basement through hallways and tunnels, in and out of the light and darkness, and everything in between, until they reached a door labeled "Janitor."

"Your spaceship is in a broom closet?" Juliet asked in disbelief.

"What? Your phone is in your pocket with your mobile; your glasses are in your eyes with your contacts. Imagine if someone from the 1700s saw you like that, they'd act the same way you are right now," the Doctor said as he put his hand on the door handle. "And besides, it's a lot bigger than it looks." He opened the door and Juliet stared at the police box. "Tada, the TARDIS."

"You travel through all of time and space in a British police box," Juliet said, the sarcasm pouring through her voice. "I ate some bad sushi, blacked out, and hit my head."

"Well, it used to look different, but I've grown to like it like this." The Doctor reached forward to the door, putting a key in the small keyhole. "Besides, the inside doesn't look like a police box, just the outside."

"You travel through time and space in a police box that has the floor space of a square yard."

"No, it's much bigger on the inside."

Juliet sighed as the Doctor took her hand and pulled her into the box, the scene changing from a decayed broom closet to that of something she had never seen before in her life. She walked into a golden room, its architecture organic in style, and she turned around in a circle.

"Give me the pieces," the Doctor said and Juliet handed the parts to him from her coat pocket and continued to spin around, to take in the environment.

"Everyone does that the first time," he said as he pushed a few buttons on the console at the center of the room, a tall towering central column alight in a green glow. "I told you that it was bigger on the inside."

"How is this possible?"

"Alien technology. Well, alien to you, a little run-down to me." The hum of the ship changed for a brief moment, raised a semitone, which Juliet picked up on. "I kinda borrowed it when no one was looking."

"You stole a spaceship."

"Well, I was friends with the mechanic. He'd understand." He pressed a few more buttons. "There, done. And off we go."

The Doctor took Juliet's hand again and pulled her back up the same steps they had run down moments before.

"How do you know we won't get lost in the time eddies, or whatever they are?"

"The TARDIS has taken care of that for us. And, as much as I admire your curiosity about everything about my life, I will ask that you save the questions for later, after we find Rose."

"Sorry," Juliet whispered, noticing that they had arrived back in the attic room, the device still pulsating light around the space. "What do we do now?" she asked.

"You start looking for Rose. She's in here, but we just can't see her. I'll work on controlling the device."

"Why not just shut it off?"

"Rose is in a different dimension. We turn this off, we can't get to her." The Doctor fumbled around with his newly restored sonic screwdriver and the device's pattern of light slowed down. "I think she was over there, near that corner." He pointed at the cot where he had briefly seen Rose and Juliet walked over there.

"Do I have to worry about these eddies?" she asked.

"Not really. Just, when you get her, come back to this device and then we can sort everything out."

Juliet started walking to the corner, slowly at first as she was still concerned what would happen if she passed through one of the faeries of light. She was about to turn around and ask when one of the beams passed through her and the Doctor disappeared from behind her. "Doctor!" she yelled, but there was no response. Instead, a woman with bleached blonde hair groaned in near silence. Juliet saw the woman and ran over to her. "Are you Rose?" she asked.

"Turn it off," the woman whispered as Juliet untied the bindings on her wrist.

"You must be Rose, what happened to you?"

Rose was unresponsive now, the device having almost taken full effect. "Doctor," Rose tried to mumble but could not. Juliet instead heard an imperceptible groan and she tried to help the other woman walk back to the center of the room.

"No, can't," Rose managed to say but fell back onto Juliet's shoulder.

"The Doctor is there, he told me to get you."

Rose became limp on Juliet's shoulder and she carried the two of them through another of the eddies and back to where the Doctor was. He looked up from his work at the device and saw the near lifeless Rose.

"Doctor!" Juliet pleaded for his help and he ran over to take Rose from her.

"Rose?" the Doctor caressed her cheek, the hum of the device now dying in the room. "Rose, can you hear me?" He checked over her body. She was still breathing but his sonic screwdriver said that she was still in danger. "We have to get to the TARDIS," he said, picking the girl up from the floor and carrying her out of the room. Juliet followed.


	18. Chapter 15

I wasn't going to do this, but I see that I'm listed as number 25 on the main page, and my plan was to keep this story there as long as possible. So, a rare update.

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Doctor, carrying Rose, and Juliet walked up the ramp to the console room in the TARDIS, the latter still trying to get used to the new reality of her life. The Doctor placed Rose on the decking near a tattered captain's chair and began to check her over.

"Is she?"

"Alive? Yes," he said, "For now at least, but it'll be touch and go. It's a good thing you found her when you did, or it would have been too late."

"Who is she?"

He leaned over the younger woman, still checking her over, still making sure she'd be okay. For being a doctor, Juliet wasn't sure if he knew what he was doing.

"You do know first aid? Right?" Juliet asked.

"Of course, I'm the Doctor."

"The Doctor or a doctor."

"Um," his voice trailed off as he reached behind the captain's chair for a tool belt full of medical equipment. Juliet came over by them and knelt across from the Doctor and looked down at Rose's unconscious frame.

"So, who is she?" she asked again, trying not to distract the Doctor yet trying to ascertain what was happening.

"She's Rose. Who else would she be?" The Doctor jumped up from his position next to Rose and pushed a few buttons on the console, the view screen lighting up in the process, showing a silhouette of Rose's form and what appeared to be her brain waves as well, dancing across the screen. "Yes!" the Doctor shouted and ran back to Rose. "Rose, wake up," he said, stroking her check and whispering in her ear. Juliet observed the happenings and was ashamed to admit to watching this; she had never been a voyeur in her life but felt as if she were one while watching the private moment between the Doctor and his Rose.

"Rose, sweetie, wake up," he stroked her face again, lightly shaking her to jostle her from her sleep.

"So, she'll be okay?" Juliet asked, trying not to distract the Doctor from the intimate moment, yet wanting to know what was going to happen next.

"She will be, if I can wake her up. If I can't wake her up, then-" The Doctor's voice fell silent, recognizing a secret fear that lay deep within him that he could not admit to, even in the darkest of moments. He became more frantic in his actions and shaking Rose with more demand and intensity, knowing deep down that he could not have this memory on his consciousness. Losing her once was more than enough, and he knew that if he could ever get her back, there would still be that final moment of her loss, one he hoped to delay for as much of eternity as possible.

Juliet looked on, not knowing what to do or how to help. How can one help in a moment of personal distress such as this? She barely knew either person in front of her, even though she knew that her fate lie in the hands of the Doctor as much as Rose's did at that moment. The more she watched, the more she felt as if she should not be there with them; she was only a third wheel. Fear and panic began to overtake Juliet and she began to imagine her future in this nether world where she was not supposed to exist but did. What would happen if Rose died? Would she be forgotten by the Doctor and left stranded at this museum? What if she lived? Would it be a fate that she was destined for either way? To be left alone in this treacherous world.

The Doctor's frantic attempts to wake Rose grew in their intensity and he was now alternating between rubbing her hands, shaking her, and yelling her name, but she would not rouse. Juliet watched this secret dance and could feel her own hope break within her. "Come on Rose!" she heard herself yell, she willed the other woman to wake up; if not for the Doctor's sake then at least for her own, and her safe ticket home.

Juliet could no longer watch the Doctor in his attempts to revive the dying Rose and she instead found herself wandering around the console room, remembering the dust motes she played with as a child, remember the faeries that would protect her from her fear; remembering the day of her third grade class play, "Sleeping Beauty." That was it.

"Doctor," Juliet called out, running back to him and Rose. "None of this will work. You have to tell her how you feel."

"What?" he looked up, shocked from his concentration and will.

"I don't know how I know this, but you have to tell her how you feel."

"It won't work," is all he said. "The device has already drained her of her life."

Juliet looked down at the Doctor who had stopped moving altogether and noticed that Rose had now stopped breathing. The effect of the device had overcome her in her final moments. The Doctor knelt down, placed his mouth next to Rose's ear and whispered a final goodbye to the girl. With deep regret, he placed his lips on Rose's and gave her one last kiss. "My one regret is that you never experienced that ever Rose Tyler."

"But she can't be," Juliet said in disbelief. How many young people would she have to witness die?

The Doctor stood up, one last vesper for his Rose floated from his lips, a reverie in a tongue Juliet could not recognize. Juliet could not move, the weight of the moment playing in her mind and draining what energy was left of her. However, none of it stopped the Doctor.

"Juliet, come. There's work to do," he said, a flat, dark, lifeless tone had taken over his psyche and the Doctor ran out of the TARDIS, leaving Juliet alone in the room with the dead girl.


	19. Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"Doctor!" Juliet yelled, her voice echoing through the control room of the mourning ship. "Doctor!" she yelled again, this time in a fast sprint towards the door. The gravity of the situation had just begun to sink in and she would not be left alone, ignored, or treated like a silly little girl. She had just seen the Doctor's love die in front of her. Even though she did not know the man, she remembered how dark the world became around her after her student died, how little regard she gave for the people trying to help her. While she wanted to give the same space to the Doctor, the space she knew he needed, she also knew that the only way she could find safety was through insuring that his actions were only for the greater good. Would he react the same way she did? Or would it be much worse, much more intense?

Juliet ran up the stairs from the basement to the foyer to the landing and to the attic room where they had all been moments before and saw that the Doctor was not alone. Inside the room, she found he had already begun his final showdown with the old woman. Juliet at once feared the outcome of the situation. If the Doctor failed, her entire world would fail along with it.

"You killed her!" he yelled, pushing the woman against the wall.

"What are you trying to do?" she asked. "Kill me just as I killed her?"

"You admit it?"

"I am only stealing your words Dearie. You're next," the old woman pushed back with strength far beyond her abilities. The Doctor fell to the floor near the device. The woman walked over and stood above him. "You won't win."

The Doctor stared in the woman's eyes, trying to keep her attention long enough to fish the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and set it to disrupt the light waves of the device behind him. "What makes you so sure about that?" he asked.

"You can't kill me."

"Won't have to. Your device will do it for me," and he aimed his sonic screwdriver at the device, the light in the room reaching beyond all possible brightness. Juliet found herself jumping down the staircase to avoid the bright light that seemed to envelop everything around her. She huddled in a corner of the landing where the light could not reach her as easily and clenched her eyes shut, but she could still see the bright light nonetheless. She stayed there until the light had faded back to normal.

When she opened her eyes, there was a slight humming present, but other than that, silence. "Doctor?" she called out, wondering if there would be a response. "Doctor?" she called out again and ran up the stairs, only to be greeted by the dancing faeries of light. She ran around the room, the light passing through her at times, until finally she walked into where the Doctor was standing.

"You will perish the same way everyone else has," he threatened the woman who was now tied up on the bed where Juliet had found Rose earlier. "And you will suffer the same way Rose did!" The Doctor pushed a button on his sonic screwdriver, aimed at the device, and light began to dance back and forth between it and the old woman.

"No!" Juliet yelled. "This isn't the answer."

"She killed Rose."

"So killing her is right?"

"Stupid ape," he looked straight into Juliet's eyes, "you wouldn't understand."

"I had a student die, three months ago."

"I loved Rose."

"Would she want this?"

"This woman has been killing for centuries."

"Would Rose want this?"

The Doctor stared at Juliet, an air of pain pouring from his soul, but he did not move. He continued to aim the sonic screwdriver at the device, the light intensifying, his eyes daring Juliet to stop him somehow, but she did not know what was possible anymore.

"She doesn't deserve to die, not like this." Juliet said, inching her way to the center of the room. "Please, Doctor. Don't kill her."

He put down the screwdriver and the light died away around them. Faeries still flickered around the room, but not as intense as it had been before. "Right then," he said and ran over to the bed where the woman was; she was weakened but still alive. "Go, and do not come back," he ordered and the woman ran away.

"I can't believe you would have killed her."

"You don't know me."

"But I know grief. And I know that dark shadow that envelops you. When it does, you just want to give in to the evil, embrace it, love it, but it doesn't work that way. It can't work that way. That darkness only exists for its own benefit, not for the benefit of the person it surrounds. It consumes them, and in the end, kills them."

"What do you know of loss? Other than that student? Huh? You haven't loved as I have," he yelled at Juliet as he started work on the device.

"My entire life was defined by loss. I came from a broken family, hid in a closet as a child to avoid being seen, being hated. I struggled to get to where I was, fought to become a mentor for children in similar situations. I haven't loved because I've been too scared to do so. Too scared I'd be hurt, like you've been with Rose."

The Doctor poked at a few buttons on the device, giving his full concentration to the task of shutting it down until he heard Juliet say Rose's name. He stopped, the pain of the sound of her name having shaken him further. "Please leave," he said without looking at Juliet, "I can't take you with me anymore."

Juliet looked at the man, not knowing what to do. She knew that he was her only hope and finding a way out of the situation she was stuck in, but somehow that had gone wrong. Her fear of his pain leading her to being left alone had become a reality. She took one last look at the man and in her mind, said her final goodbyes. She sighed a heavy sigh and walked to the door of the room, resolved at her fate of trying to fit into a world she no longer belonged in.

"Doctor?" Juliet heard a woman's voice from below the steps, but it was not the voice of the old woman, but instead, the voice of Rose Tyler.

"Doctor?" Rose asked again, walking up the stairs into the room, a sad glow in her eyes.

The Doctor stood up, shock overtaking his already broken features. "But, how?"

"The Bad Wolf still lives within me, just as it lives within Jack," Rose whispered, the light bouncing off the tears flowing down her face.

"That's not possible. I pulled it from you, there was nothing left."

"The TARDIS looked into me once again, and pulled me from the depths of the void. She has saved me. Because of the Bad Wolf, I am alive."

The Doctor stood in silence, his jaw dropped in the awe and disbelief of shock. "Rose?" he whispered, his voice breaking at her name's end.


	20. Chapter 17

Yes, another wait, and yes, a few "cheap writing tricks," but it's worth it for the series as a whole (it will just be posted here). Rose is alive, and she'll stay that way. Juliet is with Rose, and that will probably stay that way. And, they've discovered another TARDIS. The fun's just beginning for chapter seventeen below.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"The TARDIS looked into me once again, and pulled me from the depths of the void. She has saved me. Because of the Bad Wolf, I am alive."

Light started to flicker again, growing in intensity.

"Rose, that was not my TARDIS this time," he stood up from the device and took her hand, all the while looking back at it. "It was the one in this room."

"The Bad Wolf still lives within me, just as it lives within Jack," Rose repeated, fear beginning to overtake her. The Doctor wrapped his arms around the woman.

"Yes, you already said that Rose," the Doctor said as he pushed the hair behind her ear, looking into her eyes for some sign of what was happening. What did Rose know about Jack that he didn't though? Was Jack still alive? Juliet all this while stood against the wall of the room, the shock of disbelief keeping her from moving, acting, or even speaking. All she could do was stand by as a silent witness to this event as the Doctor pulled Rose tighter to himself in a hug.

"Rose, I love you," he whispered into her ear and caressed her hair while reaching behind him and pushing a few buttons on the device. The light danced around the room, brighter and brighter, faster and faster, and Rose gasped, both from the Doctor's confession and from the power of the device having revived her. She closed her eyes and relished the moment of truth and contact and wished for it to never end, the device's hypnotic hold starting to fade.

"And I will always love you, and I want nothing more than to be able to do that, but we have to stop this device first," he opened his arms and knelt back down in front of the device; Rose stood behind him and kept her hand on his back, as if to remind herself that this was real and not a dream. She had wanted so long for the moment where she could touch him, see him, that the last few months were spent doing so in her dreams. Now, she was back in the dimension in which she was born, here with her Doctor. Even though things were terribly wrong, everything would turn out right. She never lost faith in the man.

"It really is a TARDIS, but how can that be?" The Doctor looked to Rose for the answer but she shrugged her shoulders in confusion, the power of the device having already left her.

The Doctor pushed a few more buttons, and the light started flaring around the room in violent bursts of life. Having seen this, the Doctor tried to correct it, but everything he did only made it worse. It seemed as if this TARDIS knew that the woman had died and would only respond back with violence and retribution for the act. But, it explained why his own TARDIS was able to find this museum so easily, why it seemed to know what was going on before he himself did.

"I can't control it!" the Doctor shouted, the realization of the truth stinging at the edges of his words. "You'll have to run back downstairs, get away from here, and I'll try to stop it. Rose, take Juliet with you, we have to find her a home. I have to stop this."

"Not again. You already did this to me on the Game Station and at Torchwood. You are not leaving me again!" Rose shouted and ran back towards the Doctor, but just as she did, a flare of light shot out from the device, forcing its way across the room through Rose and Juliet.

"No!" the Doctor yelled, witnessing the flare, and he shot up to run to the women, but he found he could not. He looked across the room and saw them standing behind a curtain of light. When he ran towards it, he found that rather than running through it to them, he could only rebound off of it, falling backwards towards the device.

"Doctor?" Rose asked. "What's happening? Why can't you come over here?"

The Doctor scanned the device with the sonic screwdriver. "It's dying; closing the rift and the eddies with it."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked, walking as close to the Doctor as she could, panic in her voice.

"It means I'll have to find another way."

"Another way for what?" Rose threw her arms in the air. "Doctor? Answer me!"

The Doctor looked Rose in the eye and tried to speak, but found a lump of fear had grown in his throat in place of the words he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her he'd find a way, he'd bring her back to him, but the words just made the lump grow bigger. "I'm so sorry," was all he could manage to say as he aimed the sonic screwdriver at the device. Within a few seconds, the faeries of light stopped dancing, as Rose and Juliet faded from the Doctor's vision back into the dimension from which Rose came.

Silence enveloped the room and the museum, and the device grew cold, dead. The Doctor stroked it, comforted by the fact that it could no longer cause harm or feel pain, yet lost as to how he was going to get back to Rose. He didn't know if there'd be another way back, but he wished for one, willed for one. He said his last peace to that TARDIS and stood up from the center of the room, backing up against a wall for support where his body gave in; he slid his back down the wall and collapsed against it, allowing the events of the last few days to play through his mind.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled as the eddies of light dissipated around her. "Doctor!" she shouted again, as if saying is name was the only way to fix the situation, go back to him.

"What happened?" Juliet asked, fear and panic overtaking her. "Where did he go? He was right there." She kept staring at the spot in the middle of the room where the Doctor had been just seconds beforehand

Rose, picking up on Juliet's panic ran over to the now dead device in the middle of the room, randomly pushing buttons trying to get it to work again but soon realized that it would not work. She found herself stroking the side of the device, the way she had often seen the Doctor do to his TARDIS when she traveled with them. She didn't know why she did so right now, but it just seemed like the right thing to do, to mourn the loss of an ancient life.

"Not again," Rose said as she hit the device with her hand, both imitating the way the Doctor often had hit the TARDIS to get it to function and venting her frustrations.

"What's happening?"

Rose stood in the middle of the room, her back turned to Juliet and trying to show a better face for the woman. "We're stuck here," Rose muttered but then jumped back down at the device, "unless." Rose examined the device closer. "Didn't the Doctor say that this was a TARDIS?"

Juliet walked up to the device and joined Rose at the small console. "Isn't that the ship the Doctor travels in?" she asked.

"Yes."

"I think he did say so."

"Then I have an idea," Rose said, fishing through her pockets, hoping to find her cell phone.

The Doctor had been in the room now, for what seemed like hours; staring at the device, staring at the walls, staring at anything and everything, but not thinking. He couldn't do that, thought only led to suffering again. He knew he had to do something, but for the first time in his life he didn't know what it was. He walked back up to the device and put his hand on it. It was another TARDIS. He knew that he couldn't leave it here, if it were to fall into the wrong hands, who knew what would happen. Yet, the thought of pushing forward, moving on, and living another normal day pained him deep within his soul. What he wouldn't do for just another moment to sit, and let life slip by him, to let the world revolve without the Doctor's hand in saving it.

He sat down on the floor next to the device and rested his head just under its console. As he did so, he felt an item in his pocket poke him in the hip. He pulled it out and saw that it was Rose's passport and identification; the picture of the girl attempting to smile for both documents was almost too painful for the Doctor. He pressed his hand against the picture wanting, pretending to lightly stroke Rose's face. He'd give the world to have her here with him now, forever. He'd give up everything for just one more moment.

Was this the last remnant that he'd see of her?


	21. Chapter 18

The final installment of "Beyond Forgotten Walls." Thanks for all the support everyone, and please keep reading. This chapter is only the beginning!

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"Gum wrapper, a few coins, but no mobile and definitely no ID." Juliet and Rose stood in the middle of a white room with an alien black device in the middle of it. They had both been separated from the Doctor a mere moments before.

Juliet fished into her pockets as well and pulled out her cell phone. "Here, this should work."

"I don't know," Rose said and took the phone from Juliet, examining it as if it were an alien object. "Of course, mine worked before," Rose pushed the power button and the phone chimed to life with a happy beep stating that it had connected with the network.

"What exactly happened?" Juliet asked.

"You're in a parallel universe, as strange as that may sound."

"I just met the Doctor, nothing sounds strange anymore."

"Good, then here's the idea. Neither of us have IDs anymore; your's is no longer valid, and mine is with the Doctor." For the first time since first being separated from him, Rose did not cringe. "Neither of us have money, transportation, or anything else, but what we do have is this phone. I have a friend in London who can get us these documents, and help us out with this TARDIS, see if we can get it to work, but we'll have to wait. Which is okay seeing we have work to do here anyway." Rose knelt down at the base of the device and took the gum wrapper from her pocket, sliding it under the edge. "Look, the paper goes under, maybe we can move it." Juliet and Rose moved to stand opposite of each other, the device in between them, and placed their hands on it. Both were somewhat satisfied when they were able to move it a few inches on the floor. They were able to move the device, but it was still too heavy to move without further assistance.

"We'll need Mickey," Rose said as she pulled Juliet's cell phone out of her pocket and dialed the number. Juliet saw that whomever Rose was calling had answered and they were both now talking. She picked up strings of the conversation including "Doctor," "TARDIS," and a few other words that she could not make sense of.

"Oh, we're not making any money anyway. Just close it down and come over here. There should be a copy of the itinerary on Mum's desk or mine." Rose ended the call and turned to Juliet. "Now, we wait."

A flashing light. The Doctor hadn't realized that he had fallen asleep until a small flashing light had woken him. He turned around and looked and saw that the device had reactivated itself somehow. Hope was not lost. He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the device to find what was going on. He pressed a few buttons…

"Rose, why is that light blinking?" Juliet asked as both women ran back to the device. Rose began to look it over.

"Yes!" Rose shouted and jumped for joy, hugging a shocked Juliet. "We can get back!" Rose ran to the device to examine the light, Juliet not far behind. When both women's hands were on it, the image of a man appeared.

"Rose?" the Doctor's faint image asked.

"Doctor!" she shouted.

"Don't let go, not yet. There's not enough power to open the rift or even an eddy, but there is enough to get this message through to you. I'm coming for you Rose, and you as well Juliet, you have my word. But it might take time, and it might not work on the first try, but promise me that neither of you will give up on this. I will take care of you both. Rose, you will be back with me, and Juliet, you will find your home."

"Home? But you said I couldn't."

"Not exactly. The universe has another need for you first, and you have to do that before you can go home. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you that before, but you wouldn't have believed me. And this is something you need to do, but I can't tell you what it is, not yet. Rose, take care of her. And get Mickey and Jake to help you with this thing."

"They're on their way already."

"Good. Between you lot you'll get it working; it's easier than mine to run but far more unreliable as well. But make sure it never leaves your sight. Who knows what could happen if it did?" Another light on the device started to blink. "We don't have much time. Rose, take care of Juliet, and remember, I'm coming for you, never forget that. It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." The Doctor looked Rose in the eye and flashed a reassuring smile before his image faded. Rose let go of the device and the lights stopped blinking on it.

"What do we do now?" Juliet asked.

"We fight, and we never give up. The Doctor is coming for us and if not, we make sure that we can come for him."

Rose Tyler walked to the window and looked out of the attic window, a new day if not a new life, stretched out before her. The paint of the old museum had stopped peeling around her, the clouds had cleared to show the brilliant stars in the pre-dawn sky. Even though she had at one time given up hope on ever being with those starts again, she now believed that she'd be there soon. For the first time in a long time she felt as if her life had purpose. Instead of being condemned to this parallel dimension, she now had a journey ahead of her. She was to take care of Juliet as a sister, keep her safe for whatever plan the Doctor had for the other woman. She was to make sure that Mickey and Jake were there to assist in their adventures. She would not only survive, but create a world for herself back with the Doctor, if not on the route along the way. More importantly, she knew that she was not alone, for this was just the start of her journey.

TO BE CONTINUED in "Monsters in the Dark"...


End file.
